2 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - chatting with megami at the tv station

Dear Readers,

I tried finishing up my laundry delivery errand, but the bakery lady was only interested in talking about her dad's lunch! I wasn't sure what to do but I did find more glims at the swings nearby, including a very sneaky one hiding behind the tree.

I popped in to the diner and chatted with the owner. He wasn't in such a mood and said his son was playing at the vacant lot. I found a glim in the right hand corner.

I went towards the TV station and found more glims. I went inside and the strange lady was there talking about her anxieties for programming. We chatted and she introduced herself as Megami Yamada and she worked here. I asked her if I could call her Megami-chan and she said sure! She asked if I liked monster shows and I said I loved them! She was pleased to hear this. She said she was involved with production and came up with concepts. Chatting with her made episode 5: "Fight for Your Time Slot!" start. I asked her if I could become a Space Defense Department Junior Member if I ordered cake for her at Emily's bakery. She said that would never do and I couldn't bribe my way in! I found a glim to the right.

I left the TV station. I noticed that ladies are shown on the map as inverted triangles and males are shown as two pointed crowns.

1 attack of the friday monsters! a tokyo tale - beginning a summery childhood adventure

Dear Readers,

Now to try out this game in the Guild series. The designer behind this one is Kaz Ayabe and he's known for making games about having a nice summer as a kid in Japan, or at least, that's the impression I get. I've briefly heard about the other games he was involved with too.

It starts with some interesting logos like "Millennium Kitchen" and this is the label I saw in the video trailer about this game where Kaz Ayabe himself talks about it. Then there's this little history/cultural lesson where it talks about the kaiju movies of the 1950s and the hero shows of the 1960s and '70s with tall heroes that fought the kaiju. No doubt they're talking about the likes of Ultraman and Godzilla. The thing to note was that the heroes were like friends to the children of Japan or like a protective father. The game starts with a nice theme song with lyrics.

My mother calls my name, Sohta. I'm a 10-year old boy and the son of parents who run a laundry. The first scene has all the sounds and atmosphere of summer. I come downstairs and my mother calls me her treasure and asks me to deliver some laundry to the bakery. My father's working hard in the background. I complained about having to do this chore but my dad tells me not to be such a whiner.

Just observing the nice 3D effect with stuff in the foreground like clothes and bushes and dialogue boxes really popping out nicely! Also, the font is the same or at least almost the same as the one used in the Pikmin games. It is a nice font! The dialogue sound comes in in pleasant taps and bips.

Another thing to note about the 3D effect is that the scenery is static, which provides a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the 3D feature, since looking at static images like photographs is always fun even though moving or scrolling video images isn't always fun. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of the 3D feature.

Mom did some giving out to Dad as well because of a customer earlier. I noticed that she didn't go about things the right way but she was reliable and my dad took pride in his work but he had low self-esteem. Mom gave me a backpack full of laundry and I was on my way.

As I was leaving, she told me that monsters were coming out today since it was Friday and told me not to be late!

I wonder if it's like when grown ups used to tell us to come home before the fairies came out, haha! :)

I asked her if she meant the real monsters or the ones on TV. She told me the real ones were big and scary and to be careful! I asked her if she knew that a show called "Guardians! Blue Planet Space Defenders!" was recorded here in this city. She said I must be glad to have TV here in Tokyo. 

After saying goodbye episode 1 began, titled "A Fateful Friday Errand!" and I was able to move and learn about stuff. This feature called "Word to the Wise" popped up with a voiced tutorial. I wonder if this is a Japanese TV thing. I poked around in the menus and there's stuff about cards.

I went back inside home and found a Colossal Crustacean Glim in the right-hand corner at the side of the stairs along with another Word to the Wise telling me what it is. Looks like I'll have to explore lots, even in obscured areas.

I went outside again and found a Botanical Beast Glim straight away, gleaming to the left. I headed towards my goal on the map and found another glim of this kind just mentioned along with an Atrocious Avian Glim.

Again, noting the sounds of summer! Insects chirping, though I don't know exactly what kind. Crickets or cicadas or something. There was also the ringing which sounded like a level crossing for a train. Then there was the slightly muffled sound of the TVs or radios in the area. Of course, there was the noisy machines in our family laundry too.

I talked to the strange lady and she was unhappy about something and mentioned someone named Emily. Then she left. I went inside the bakery she was blocking and found no one inside there. I was disappointed because I was hoping to be paid in sweets. Then some dialogue appeared, saying episode 2 had started and it was titled "Love, Courage, and Confections"

I left the bakery and there was a boy with glasses. He was Teruo Tanaue, from the 3rd grade, which was one behind mine. He said everyone called him A Plus. I introduced myself to him after asking his name. I was still new in town I suppose, seeing how I was a transfer student. I asked him why he was called A Plus and he said he'd rather not say as it was too embarrassing. He asked me if I noticed all the smoke that came out of the factory chimneys and that they got really smokey on Fridays. He said maybe they did all their frying on Fridays! I asked him why and he said he didn't know, but the monsters came out on Friday and that's when the chimneys start smoking so much. I found it pretty mysterious!

A Plus then said a lot of the kids were going to meet at the vacant lot before the monsters appear and invited me to come. I asked him where it was and he said to meet him at the TV station. Then he left before I got a chance to ask him where the TV station was! The narrator's voice then said I should finish my errand before going out to play like this! This made "Episode 3: Meet at the Vacant Lot!" begin, so multiple episodes can happen at the same time. I found a Mesozoic Mosquito Glim here as well.

I found Dad outside the barber shop. He said the barber left in a hurry which left him hanging because he was hoping to get his hair cut while the laundry was drying. He said it made sense since it was Friday and giant monsters were going to be around.

I went past dad and found more glims, including a Primeval Plesiosaur one.

I found the bakery lady at the police station. She was giving out to a cop about forgetting his lunch. They noticed me and said hello. He introduced himself as Officer Kobayashi and said I could tell him if there was any trouble. I introduced myself and said I had to deliver some laundry for the bakery lady, who introduced herself as Emily. She was impressed that I was carrying a full week's worth of uniforms by myself. I asked if they were friends with my childhood curiosity and she said not in the slightest! She said her name was Emiko Kobayashi, or Emily for short. I thought they were husband and wife but they clarified that they were father and daughter. She said again they weren't friends when I asked. Then she left.

The narrator added in some details. I wondered if I forgot something and the narrator said I completely forgot! Whatever that was. This made "Episode 4: The Errant Errand" start.

I chatted with the cop again. We saluted each other when I did and he said he was more worried about the feud between him and his daughter than he did about the monsters. I went back to Emily, who was still grumpy with her dad forgetting his lunch every day. I found another Botanical Beast Glim nearby next to some paints.

Well, that's it for the first post. Getting to know some characters. More mingling next time.

19 xeodrifter - 100% complete!

Dear Readers,

Before finishing up with this game I wanted to find the rest of the health upgrades and get 100%, so I went exploring everywhere again.

I covered the green planet but found nothing.

I then found a secret passage on the purple planet at the first shell enemy. I simply had to jump into the right wall and run across the lava to obtain it. Hooray! It was a nice find.

I searched the blue planet but couldn't find anything else.

I searched the red planet then, including the passage that led to the boss but I couldn't find anything. Finally I gave in and looked up a map, which showed a secret passage in the ceiling of the red planet map just after the lava dash in the top right. I took it for granted before that there wasn't anything there. In fact, I think this may be the only place in the game that has a false ceiling? I'm not sure though.

With that I now had 100% progress! I faced the boss again for the sake of it and I wiped the floor with it now that I had all the upgrades!

So what can I say? This scratches that Metroidvania itch we had during the 3DS era and kept us going for a while. I had the 3D slider on max the whole time and I'm going to miss having a map on a second screen when we leave this generation of systems far behind.

18 xeodrifter - the final boss and the warp core!

Dear Readers,

Now that I had all the 6 abilities I decided to explore the red planet before facing whatever boss was there to find more upgrades.

I found a health upgrade alright that needed the shift move. I went back to the title screen and saw that there were possibly two more health upgrades so I went back to exploring the earlier planets. I had no more weapon upgrades to find.

I combed the green and purple planets but couldn't find anything else.

I headed straight back to the red planet to investigate the mural that was now finished. I shifted right and encountered the grey boss! It grabbed this big green diamond-shaped thing and escaped upwards! I chased after it with the Rocket.

I continued on a winding path where I had to dash across lava and use the phase shift many times. I eventually got to the boss chamber.

This time the boss was green and had the same patterns as before but it was faster. I died a few times but I managed to whittle its health down. When I got it down all the way it turned grey and did something with its eyes that made weird black hole thing effect happen that sucked the whole scene into itself like it was made out of paper.

I found myself in a new area that was all blue and murky and I had to navigate the tunnel. It had urgent and strange music. There were these long green spiky things that came sideways out of the wall like those spiked pillars in Mario games.

I started hearing some noises and it was the grey boss cowering in a little cache it made for itself, clinging onto the green diamond thing for dear life. I shot at it which killed it and brought me back to the boss room along with the diamond thing. It was the warp core!

When I collected it, a little cutscene played out where I was on my ship and flew out of that little pocket of space and among the stars once more. Hooray!

The credits rolled and included Kevin Cassidy of GoNintendo! He blogged about the game and had it on the site banner as well as the usual awesome Nintendo news. I think he was doing a partnering promo thing at the time but he was cool about it. It was an example of something that always made me happy, when the developer and the press were making and telling us about a game that was really good. When that happens it feels like all is right with the world for a little while :)

This game I had now beaten but it was 97% complete with two remaining health upgrades to find. Where were they? I thought I combed around everywhere. I must've missed something.

17 xeodrifter - exploring the blue planet and defeating the blue boss

Dear Readers,

Now that I have more abilities and firepower, it's time to explore the blue planet.

I found that the big chasing flying enemies take two fully powered shots of the solar flare to be defeated. However, my upgrades were now fast enough and powerful enough to take them out without too much hassle! Pretty happy about that!

I continued past where I couldn't go before with the Rocket and found a passage to the left that had a health restoring enemy. There was a heart on the back ground so I took that to mean this was a refill station. Back on the path up ahead was a heavy barrier, so I'm glad I didn't immediately come here when I got the Rocket before the Solar Flare.

The path continued towards the boss. Before facing it I guessed that the ability it was keeping had something to do with the walls I've been seeing between me and upgrades and paths.

This time the boss was blue and I beat it on my first try! I was very powerful and used charged Solar Flares on it. I was also able to damage it while it was in barrier form so that was nice. Made the battle go a bit quicker. Its new attacks included unleashing smaller minions of itself to chase me. It was a close battle though and I was left with 1 health remaining!

The new ability I got was the Phase! Or was it Phaze? I'll spell it with an 's' for now. This ability lets me do a type of quick dodge where I disappear and shift forward a few paces before reappearing. 

I made my way back to the ship, finding new paths and upgrades, including ones that I had seen before but couldn't reach. More health and weapon upgrades which were always nice.

16 xeodrifter - exploring on the red planet for upgrades with the solar flare

Dear Readers,

It seemed obvious that the next boss would be on the blue planet, so I decided to explore the red planet for upgrades with the Solar Flare so I could prepare for it.

Straight away there was the weapon upgrade at the start of this area. I then learned that as awesome as the Solar Flare was, the big block enemy's laser was still stronger. It also takes like 4 charged shots to defeat it with the weapon! I'll stick to the fast wavy strategy for it.

I found a health upgrade in the rightmost part of the map and beyond the boss area I found another weapon upgrade. Then I headed back to the ship.

Lots of upgrades so stopping here was a good idea! I feel I'm going to need to be as strong as I can when I go back to the blue planet. Hope I'm more able to deal with those big flying bug enemies now!

15 xeodrifter - exploring green planet with solar flare

Dear Readers,

I decided to go back to the green planet with the Solar Flare, since there weren't any new bosses here and I could just find more upgrades to deal with later ones.

It was only now I noticed that the map displays had numbers of dots next to them, probably indicating their difficulty level. I barely explored the blue planet. That'll be later I'd say since it has four dots. The weapon mural thingy was on the red planet though so maybe that'll be later again, who knows.

Those bomber enemies I can now destroy with one hit, which is great. 

I explored further the top right part of the map for another weapon upgrade before returning to the ship.

14 xeodrifter - using the awesome solar flare weapon

Dear Readers,

Now to explore the bottom left part of the purple planet map while trying out the new awesome Solar Flare.

I was able to use the Solar Flare while using the submarine. It felt really good to swim into enemies while also deflecting their shots. The multi direction shooters were particularly fun to defeat!

I reached the bottom left and found another weapon upgrade before returning to the ship. The next question was where to explore next with this new possibility?

13 xeodrifter - defeating the green boss for a new weapon

Dear Readers,

I returned to the purple planet with my new Rocket ability to do more exploring. This time I was able to make my way to the dot at the top left part of the map. Along the way, I came across more heavy barriers. I guessed the boss here must be holding on to the ability that lets me through them!

This time, the boss was green. I died a few times to it and it seemed its new ability was firing lasers while in the shield mode. I made my rapid fire full power and that kept it at bay but I wondered if there was a better way to go about it. I kept the pressure on it and whittled its health down to defeat while in the background, which was kind of cool. The prize it dropped was back there too.

The new ability was the Solar Flare, a charged weapon I was able to equip and unequip with a touchscreen tap. It couldn't combine with the other weapon upgrades but it was nice on its own.

I continued into the tunnel that looped back to before the boss room, trying out my new weapon. I found that it also acted like a shield that deflected bullets and I could run into enemies with it as well. It felt like a nice new fun weapon to use and master!

I grabbed the gun upgrade above this area and backtracked to the ship so I could save, having fun with my new weapon along the way.

12 xeodrifter - rocketing for a health upgrade on the green planet and another obstacle

Dear Readers,

I returned to the green planet with my new rocket ability.

I made my way to the shaft located just before the second boss and shot up through it. I found a room with a health upgrade but it also had a secret passage to a heavy barrier. I'll have to come back here again later.

That was that for the green planet for now, so I set course for the purple planet to see what I could explore further there.

11 xeodrifter - plane shifting while rocketing

Dear Readers,

I went back to the red planet for more exploring. I forgot about that path just before the first big block enemy. I went down and found indentations in the wall that matched with my ability slots. They even matched with whether the slots were filled or not. I'll have to come back when I get all the abilities. There was a wall here that blocked the way forward on this path. I guess the abilities will have something to do with taking it out of the way.

I used my Rocket to explore the new path that had the second big block enemy in the way. I also found that I could plane shift while using it, which came into play here! Unfortunately, I couldn't use the Rocket with the sub. Oh well. I found a weapon upgrade up here. I put it straight into the quick shot, which helped that little bit more when dealing with the big block enemy on the way back to the ship.

There was nothing left to explore here at the moment, so I went back to the ship to take my Rocket ability to one of the other planets.

10 xeodrifter - rocketing back to my ship

Dear Readers,

With my new Rocket ability I shot up the next shaft I came across. I was also pleased to learn I could manoeuvre a bit and cancel the boost as well if I wanted.

To the left was a huge block enemy and a heavy barrier I still couldn't break yet that blocked the way to a weapon upgrade. To the right was a lava pool to dash across. This made the path loop around to a shaft that dropped down to just before the grey boss. Very tidy!

Now to backtrack and find shafts to explore with my new ability. I backtracked up that shaft I found earlier in the fork in the path. I guess that's a sign there's an ability ahead, when there's a forked path and one of the branching paths has an obstacle you can overcome and backtrack through with that ability. It was a similar thing with the Run and Plane Shift abilities. I guess with the sub too, but that was a while back to remember fully.

I did come across an unexplored shaft on the way back, but it was near the beginning and I wanted to go back to my comfy cosy ship and save before making any more progress.

9 xeodrifter - the grey boss and the rocket ability

Dear Readers,

After exploring the area with the nice Mutant Mudds easter egg, I continued to the next. This path continued to another section at the bottom of a hole and a boss chamber.

This boss was again like the other bosses but this time it was grey and was able to flood the front plain with lava. It also liked to stamp down on me, which made me want to use the run ability. I lost a few times but eventually I beat it, earning the Rocket ability! Cool name for it! ;)

I wasn't allowed to backtrack, so I had to continue through the path that opened forward.

I tried the Rocket a few times. It's a nice ability that lets me shoot up from the bottom of a hole or shaft. I knew something like it was coming along and I finally had it.

8 xeodrifter - exploring the red planet (not mars)

Dear Readers,

I had to go on to the last new planet to explore, the red planet. Not to be confused with our own red planet, Mars.

This planet had red blistery walls, which were very Metroid like indeed. The first thing to see was the powerup in the background blocked by the strong barrier. I guess I can always use that barrier as a handy test for whatever abilities I'll discover.

The music here was pretty dramatic, as if maybe it was the last planet.

The first enemy here was new and it was a huge stone block with an eyeball that made this huge noisy beam shoot now and again. I ducked and increased the wavy laser to deal with it. I was glad that I could customise weapon upgrades on the lower screen while the game was paused.

I got past this big block enemy and ran across the lava pool to the next area. Another new enemy was this green bouncy blob that just bounced around. In the background, another huge block enemy guarded the path that led to the bottom of another hole. Further on, there was a health upgrade that was in the wall and blocked off. I also saw another one of those "!" things just before a plane shift barrier. Still not sure what they do.

I went into the background and dashed across the lava pool back there. I was able to shift back but had to keep the momentum to reach the other side of the front pool.

Then I had to dive down with the submarine. At the bottom there was a secret passage in the right wall that lead to another lava pool and heavy barrier I couldn't pass, so I'll have to come back.

I continued and met a piranha plant like enemy that spat shots in the same pattern all the time. Handy enough to deal with.

There was some more plane shifting and before diving again I found another secret passage in a left wall that lead to a chamber with some cool graffiti! It said "MAX WOZ HERE!" and it had a scene with Max from Mutant Mudds scrawled out on the wall. Lovely easter egg! :) Handy health restore here too.

The path split in two here going straight down a long way. One was just a pure drop down a shaft with a risk of landing on enemies and the other was full of water. They both met at the same place with a door going into the next area. I made sure to have explored as much as I could before proceeding, so I wouldn't have to deal with the respawned enemies until later. There's a pro tip for you!

7 xeodrifter - exploring the blue planet and meeting those horrible flying chasing enemies

Dear Readers,

Time to explore a new planet with my upgrades, submarine, plane shift and run! I went for the blue planet. I was met with water, stalagmites, stalactites and a little blob thing that exploded in my face straight away. Welp!

I went back to the ship to top up on health and tried again. The music was a lovely groovy David Wise-like jingle.

I dove deep and reached the bottom. To the left was a secret passage to a health upgrade. The path to the right led to a secret passage in the right wall that had a weapon upgrade. Nice thing to get right away.

Enemies here that shot in different directions now shot in more directions and in pairs of shots. At least now I was able to fire even faster with my upgrades.

Then I met a scary and awful enemy with wings that chased me! I was able to beat it but I was in bad shape and had to return to the ship to recover and save. It looked a lot like the awful flying enemies with wings in Metroid but much bigger.

I was able to defeat it and make some progress. Then I came across health and weapon upgrades that were trapped behind walls where I couldn't reach them! I have to move past them for now.

Further on were another two of those horrible flying bug things! I died several times to them and they are terrible! They take so many hits and they keep flying away and dive bombing you!

I died several times and tried to just go past them. Then I came across lava pools on both the regular plain and back plain along with those impassable barriers that stop me from plain shifting. Dashing between them while also trying to avoid those flying enemies was not easy!

Then I came to a dead end and couldn't progress further. I was at the bottom of a hole again so I had to go back to the ship, or in my case, die again so that area isn't explored on the map. I know what's there though at least. It's scouted out in my mind.

I wonder if those roundy things with the "!" next to the barriers have some kind of mechanism? I tried shooting them but nothing happened.

6 xeodrifter - exploring purple planet with run ability

Dear Readers,

I returned to the purple planet now that I had the run ability. I wanted to revisit the lava pools that stopped me before.

My first stop was in the lava pool near where I found that health upgrade in the centre of the map. I ran over the obstacle and came across another obstacle. I was at the bottom of a hole again so I'll have to come back here again later.

There weren't any other lava pools here. There was that big metallic obstacle but I couldn't break that, so I went back to the ship.

5 xeodrifter - returning to ship with the run ability

Dear Readers,

After gaining the run ability from the red boss, I continued beyond.

The path led me to a lava pool. I was able to use my newly obtained run ability to dash across it! This way looped back to the path that led to the boss, so I went the other way.

I came across those mean bomber flying enemies and was better able to deal with them since I had higher ground. Running still wasn't the greatest idea though.

I got back to the fork in the path and took the lava filled route this time. There was a weapon upgrade in the middle of it!

I continued backtracking until I got to the beginning and returned to my comfy spaceship to save and decide where to explore next.

Before I fought the red boss there was a hole above me I couldn't explore as there were no platforms to climb. I'll come back later.

There were lava pools on the purple planet, so I returned there now that I had the run ability. 

4 xeodrifter - back to the green planet to explore and find the run ability

Dear Readers,

After goofing with the save system, I went exploring the purple planet again until I got the plane shift. I got some health and gun upgrades too.

I returned to the green planet and covered my tracks to see if I had missed out on anything. Straight away there was the health upgrade near the beginning. There was another health upgrade to find with this method on the way to the first boss I fought. There's a hidden path in the corner of the cave where you go up and turn left for the boss and that's where I found it.

I could plane shift in the boss room too but there was nothing to find. I continued and looped through the waterway to the beginning. Here I was able to plane shift and explore another water tunnel loop for another weapon upgrade. I was still near the entrance, so I made sure to save!

I explored further with the plane shift and went to a section where the path split in two. The high road had a lava pool, the low road was a waterway. They both met in the same place and the path rejoined.

Further on was a new enemy that was big and mean looking. It dropped bombs that exploded into bits whenever I got close, so I had to be strategic when shooting at it. For now, I was happy with using the rapid shot to get a few hits in and run away!

I continued to where I had to plane shift and climb and continued to the next boss. Again it looked the same but it was red this time and it had a different pattern.

It was able to encase itself in a bubble and float after me. I had to plane shift and this made it try different attacks. It didn't seem to like when I stayed on the back plane as it attacked harshly whenever I went back there! It was pretty hard to plane shift from the front because I always had to jump first. It took a few tries, but I was able to beat it with some quick manoeuvring and the quickshot fully powered with my 3 weapon upgrades!

When I beat it, I got the run ability. This was like a sudden charging dash that kept going until you hit something or you cancel it.

3 xeodrifter - getting used to the save system

Dear Readers,

With the Plane Shift obtained, I backtracked and found a path that lead to a gun upgrade. There were these 5 meters on the touch screen and I could increase different feature strengths of the gun by equipping this upgrade. One was like a wave beam and another was a quick shooting type of beam. Another was a big strong beam. I'll learn more about them as I upgrade.

Further back again, I was able to plane shift with the submarine and found more health.

I then tried to explore the plane shift where I found the upgrade hidden in the yellow wall, but there was another type of obstacle, some kind of lava pool. I had to come back later. 

On the way back to the ship I died, which sent me back to just after obtaining the Plane Shift from the boss. Then I ran out of time to play so I quit, which reset my progress back to before I started exploring the purple planet. I'm gonna have to keep an awareness of this.

2 xeodrifter - obtaining the submarine and the plane shift

Dear Readers,

After obtaining the submarine, I continued beyond, where I immediately had to use it to explore further. I dove deep and found a badly needed +1 health capsule. I continued and it looped back to the beginning of the area. There was another place to dive, but I needed something else to continue exploring. I could already see areas in the background but didn't have a way to explore them yet.

I returned to the spaceship and travelled to the purple planet next. This place had lovely music too. The green planet had very nostalgic sounding music whereas this one had music that seemed to capture the wonder of space exploration. Very nice style of music.

I had to use the submarine very early here and explored until I got to a big shelled enemy I had to fire at multiple times to defeat. I was able to do it handily. I came across many enemies that fired in four directions and passed by some areas with a background area too.

Some enemies with a big eye and horns shot in 3 directions. I was able to beat them by standing very close to them and shooting them out.

I went through a door that led to an area with light yellow coloured blocks. There was what looked like a dead end but was a secret passage to more health.

In the water along the walls were also these tiny enemies that weren't the easiest to see but I had to be careful not to bump into them.

The path led into an area with blue walls and continued until I met another boss! This was the same as the purple one but this was a different purple. I suppose you could say that first one was more magenta and this was more bluish purple. It had a similar pattern to the first and I was able to beat it on the first try, thanks to having more health.

When I defeated it I obtained the plane shift! With this I was able to switch between the background and this plane when the situation called for it. It looks really nice on the 3DS screen!

I used the plane shift straight away on the path ahead and it looped around to just before the boss' chamber. There was also a path blocked off by a huge metallic obstacle. Don't know how to deal with that yet.

1 xeodrifter - cute little 3ds metroidvania

Dear Readers,

Now to finally start playing Xeodrifter! It's by Renegade Kid, particularly Jools Watsham. Things have changed since 2014 and he went on to form Atooi, where he still brings games like this to us. He was also behind Mutant Mudds and he supported the Nintendo 3DS like no one else did. He used to post QR codes you could scan with your 3DS that would link to special images that displayed in 3D with the .mpo format. No one else ever did this.

I've played a chunk of this and it's a lovely little Metroidvania. It's just like if you can imagine Mutant Mudds in the Metroidvania style.

The 3D visuals are brilliant as well and it's a joy to play at a desk or an armchair when you have a comfortable moment.

The electronic instruction manual is tiny with a total of 3 pages, with little else but an explanation of the controls. The 3DS menu icon is the little red main character and the visual is the character rotating around with the logo of the game, in a nice solid pixel style.

I start the game as the little red shooter guy on my spaceship when I get hit by space debris and it damages my warp travel mechanism. This leaves me stranded in a system with four planets. My ship detects some energy thingy that'll help me so I have to go to each planet and seek out whatever these 7 dots are across the whole lot of them.

I decided to go to the green planet first. It feels very nice and Metroid-like, right down to the enemies that move back and forth. The ones that help you replenish energy are a nice tribute and are much easier to deal with than in Metroid.

I explore for a bit and come across my first boss, a big purple alien dino thing. I died a couple of times but its pattern was very sussable and I was able to defeat it for the submarine.

22 the starship damrey - alex's profile and the silver ring

Dear Readers,

All that was left to do now was to find out what to do with the silver ring. The captain wanted to give it to Alex, but I still wasn't 100% sure where her room was. I had the option to leave the ring on almost everyone's desk and nothing really happened. I ended the game a few times, guessing which desk was Alex's.

Some rooms I knew for sure about their owners, but others I didn't know, like the one with the rugby ball or the one with the teddy bear. 

My possibility-exhausting guesses finally paid off when I left the ring on the desk with the rugby ball in the room. This was Alex's room!

Rewatching the ending with its static images and text boxes, it really does feel like a standard visual novel. I'd love to read more of them!

When I ended the game with the ring placed on Alex's desk, the ending played out as normal, but an extra bit was added on. Nick observed with shock that the robot left the ring on Alex's desk and he wondered if it was a sentimental gesture or further research.

With that, Alex's profile was finally unlocked! I checked it out and it said she was called back into the military after giving birth, due to the shortage of men. The captain found this very affecting, as he was a family man himself. He wondered if her child would regard her as their mother if she got back safely after all these years.

Alex was alive of course and in Cold Sleep, but there was a Keplarian on board that Nick had to deal with now.

The game was now 100% complete! So glad I finally finished this and it was a well made little game.

21 the starship damrey - exterminating the final space leech in danny's room

Dear Readers,

I finally found the space leech in Danny's room! It was on the frame of the non-usable door next to the entrance to his room. It took me ages to spot but I finally got it!

When I exterminated this 20th and final space leech, the computer asked me to celebrate.

I checked the archive and Alyssa's profile was now unlocked. It said she was 8 years old in her father's home video and hologram but 15 years had passed by during Cold Sleep. She was now getting married and had no idea her father was now dead. It's really sad and upsetting. 

Her sun hat is great. No doubt a thing we all need in the near future.

20 the starship damrey - confused in the menu between the extra and linked content

Dear Readers,

Now to check out the linked content I unlocked by linking with save data from Liberation Maiden.

It was titled "Alyssa" and it was all about the captain's daughter on her wedding day. She felt guilty about getting married without her father and her mother played a recording he made before he left on the mission especially for when she got married, making her emotional.

This game came out before Interstellar. I'm not fond of these stories of families separated by space and time, but they may very well become a thing in the future. This extra bit of story about Alyssa is very well written and has an impact.

This also confirms that Alex isn't the captain's daughter. What's not confirmed is why he was going to give her the ring.

After reading "Alysssa" I loaded the game again and wandered around with the silver ring. I even looked up GameFAQs because I didn't know what to do.

I chose the Linked Content option again and got the Space Leech scenario! So Alyssa wasn't the linked content, just an unlockable after the story was finished.

The space leech scenario was very interesting. It was like an episode of the life of the crew. Large smuggled a space leech onboard and it caused a lot of trouble. No matter what he did it just multiplied and he couldn't get it off so the others were talking about amputation. He fled to the AR room and accidentally discovered that AR-7 had a disinfectant spray that killed space leeches that no one knew about! His arm was saved but the space leeches got everywhere.

19 the starship damrey - checking out the key words and credits

Dear Readers,

Not sure what to do with the silver ring and the last space leech, so I'll look at the archive. A thing unlocked called Key Words. It documented a few interesting things under headings.

Nutrition documented insects being processed to make meat using human excrement. Very unappetising.

AR Series documented the robots and their retro aesthetic. They're pretty cool.

ADAM-OS documented the operating system and also the DOS-style prompt, used for retro enthusiast reasons. It is pretty cool alright!

Cookie Can documented that time Large fasted for religious reasons. Mei Ling left some cookies at his door out of concern, which is how he ended up with it. No one understood his reasons since he wasn't a people person at all.

SAM documented the voiced concierge interface thingy with some fun facts, including when Large told it his feelings for Nick.

I looked up the group "Open Sesame" in the credits and checked out their other works. Some very strange and obscure stuff there going back years! They were behind a piece of DS software that told you sad stories! Really interesting history!

18 the starship damrey - wandering around aimlessly with the silver ring

Dear Readers,

There's a thing or two I missed, so I continued my game from before I put in the LUCY password. That's where you start again when you decide to continue after finishing the game.

I looked at my legs, which were draped in this blue garment thing. I never figured I was a Keplarian all this time and that ending was a shock!

There was a vent switch at the end of the room I didn't check before, so I pressed that to explore the part of the vent I couldn't reach because Danny's body was in the way.

In this part of the vent I picked up the shining object, which was the silver ring. I had no idea what to do with it though. I just knew the captain wanted to give it to Alex.

I returned to the crew quarters. I was able to place the ring on desks but that didn't really do anything. When I checked Lucy's photograph in Danny's room(I know it's his now because I was in his cabinet) this music from just before the ending started playing. Not sure what it meant though.

I also had that one remaining space leech in Danny's room, but I couldn't get at it with the locker.

I went back to the Cold Sleep Chamber and made the ending play out again. Nothing different. Not sure what to do to get that final space leech.

17 the starship damrey - nick's awakening!

Dear Readers,

The moment I entered the Cold Sleep Chamber, the ghost girl appeared right in front of the robot with her arms stretched to her sides, making a barrier!

I tried approaching but she said with voiced dialogue "Don't come this way!" yikes...

I retreated a bit and checked out the Cold Sleep capsules I could reach. To the left was Capsule 7 and it was Large's. To the right was Capsule 8 and it was Mei Ling's. I knocked on both of them but there wasn't any answer. They weren't in use anyway.

I then approached the ghost girl again and she disappeared. Yeeks.

I checked the next two cold capsules. Capsule 5 was Bobby's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock. Capsule 6 was Alex's capsule and it was in use! There was no response to knocking and there was an option to open, but it couldn't be open from the outside.

Capsule 3 was Captain Edward's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock. Capsule 4 was Abdul's, wasn't in use and had no response to a knock.

Capsule 1 was Nicolas's and was in use! It had no response to a knock though.

Before going further I checked Capsule 2, which was Danny's and was in use as well! I gave it a knock and this was the capsule I was in! What's going on?

This capsule was different to the other ones and had an outer lock. I couldn't open it from the inside. It said I could unlock from the outside by using a password.

I got the prompt for the password and the Lucy music started playing. There were four characters, so I entered the word "Lucy", unlocking it. When I did, some new music started playing. I couldn't open the capsule with the robot, so I had to do it myself from the inside.

When I pressed the blue button on the touch screen, the capsule opened up. Then, a big green hand came out of it along with some creepy noises! Then bam! The credits started playing! Whoa!!!!

When the credits were over, the next scene showed the inside of a capsule with a man's voiced dialogue, thinking the ship got back to Earth. The computer verified the voice and said good morning to 2nd Lieutenant Nicolas Weaver.

Nicolas wasn't able to open the capsule and asked the computer what was going on. The computer told him the ship wasn't able to avoid the asteroid belt and suffered damage. The computer then revealed the Keplarian that was confined got violent and killed several crew members. It wasn't around now but the low oxygen levels prevented him from opening his capsule.

Nick asked for video footage and was shown a robot! The computer told him a user trapped in a Cold Sleep Capsule was controlling it. Nick asked who it was and the computer told him it was a guest, since no voice print files matched. He asked which capsule it was in and was shown the one with the weird lock that I opened.

It was then revealed that 3 Keplarians were captured by the ship. One was injured and was getting treatment. Abdul insisted on this.

Then it turned out the Keplarians were studying humans much longer than humans had been studying them. They seemed to know the humans' technology, solar system and culture.

Nick didn't know how the Keplarian got into the capsule and determined something must've happened while he was asleep to make the others lock it in there. He was astounded that it was able to take control of AR-7. He asked the computer to cut the connection.

The computer, SAM, sounding very much like HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, told him he didn't have the authority to rescind guest users' privileges. He was puzzled and asked about the captain. SAM told him the captain wasn't responding.

Nick then said he accessed Captain Goddard's home video from the archives and projected a hologram of his daughter in hopes of confusing or scaring it, but it didn't faze it! So it was Nick who created the ghost girl! Nick also tried to use the other working robots to slow it down, which explained the jumpscare attacks.

Nick then observed that the robot avoided trouble instead of causing it and even tried to help Abdul before he died, but noted it could've just been helping others to help itself. Nick tried using the crane and everything, but couldn't outwit or stop the robot.

Nick then noted that it was thanks to the Keplarian that he escaped his capsule as well. All that was left to do was to confront it, and his chances were slim. If he failed, the mission would be a failure and mankind would suffer the consequences.

Nick said he would set the Damrey's self-destruct mechanism for one hour and confront the alien. If he won, he could disarm the mechanism and enter Cold Sleep until he could get back to Earth. This journey would then take three years. He said if he didn't return, to please regard the crew and himself as killed in action. He signed his name and then the ending screen appeared.

Wow... what an amazing twist and what an excellent story. I thought I was actually him for a while! I didn't think I was a Keplarian the whole time!

That was a superbly suspenseful and entertaining game with excellent and well-paced plotting. I loved it!

But wait, there's more! There's the linked content and Nick's profile to look at in the archive. In Nick's profile, the captain had great admiration for him, calling him rational and level-headed. He said Nick's quick thinking led to the successful capture of the Keplarians and hoped that this mission would be the turning point of the war.

Didn't know anything about a war. I thought this was like a mission of exploration.

The only profiles left blanked out were the last lady, whose name I can safely assume was Alex, unless there's another twist! Then there was the question mark profile.

There's other stuff too like Key Words, but I'll have a look next time.

16 the starship damrey - exploring the airlock chamber

Dear Readers,

I left the captain's quarters and headed for the airlock chamber.

When I got there I saw a freight crane ahead. When I approached it suddenly attacked and gave me another jumpscare!

I went into the control room where I could now see what that dangerous object panel was about. There was a grenade inside! I took it and used it on the freight crane.

A dramatic cutscene played where the crane grabbed at the robot and missed in slow motion, where the robot then attached the grenade to the crane arm. The robot then wheeled away from an explosion in a very "Cool guys don't look at explosions" kind of way! That was pretty funny!

Beyond the the now destroyed crane arm was a space leech to exterminate in the corner and the oxygen control lever. I pulled it and it supplied oxygen to the Cold Sleep Chamber, which then unlocked the door. yay!

I checked out the airlock storage. There was another space leech to exterminate and the airlock manual. The manual said the control room console was for pod maintenance only, the freight crane was for loading freight onto escape pods(also a warning not to walk under the crane), the oxygen tank lever I found already.

All that was left now was to explore the Cold Sleep Chamber at last!

15 the starship damrey - more clues about the crew in the captain's journal

Dear Readers,

I went into the captain's quarters. It was about the size of the doctor's room.There were two very interesting clues here with lots of information.

On the desk there was the regulation book. It was open on the page about the Cold Sleep Chamber locking itself when oxygen falls below safe levels. The oxygen can then be increased with the oxygen lever in the Airlock Chamber. Very handy!

On the bed was the captain's journal with crew observations! Bobby seemed to be drunk, Danny was getting too familiar with female crew and the captain reassigned the rooms because of this. Large seemed to be hiding an unrequited love for Nick, Lt. Cardiff filed a complaint about Alex's music, which the captain found childish. The captain lost the ring he was going to give Alex after all that work. He often thought of Alyssa and longed to see his daughter with a ring of her own.

Interesting stuff. I went back to the archive to make more observations. We finally have the last name, Alex, which could be the last lady's name and she may be the captain's daughter and her room may be close to Abdul's room, but that's still just a guess for now. I know now for sure that Danny's room isn't next to the last lady's room.

14 the starship damrey - exploring the other bedrooms to find out who owns them

Dear Readers,

After leaving the cockpit with the captain's ID access, I returned to the crew members' quarters to check out the other rooms I couldn't before.

The first I checked was opposite Bobby's room. Inside was a space leech to exterminate and a teddy bear on the desk. Didn't find out whose room this was.

The second was opposite Abdul's room. I went inside and the light here was flickering. There was a journal on the bed and I had a look. Whoever wrote it said they installed a system that took the ARs to the vents, though the captain wasn't thrilled about it. Then they mentioned a grenade... whoa... They said in an emergency, how could they get the captain's approval. Hmm... must note for later.

The last two rooms at the end of the hall were unexplored as well. I went into the one marked number 15 on the map and it was another flickering light room. I could hear a space leech but had trouble finding it. There was a picture of a woman on the locker, the same one as in my Cold Sleep chamber! It was Lucy! That means this had to be my room. I ought to be able to open the locker in that case but I couldn't with the robot. I saw no sign of that space leech either, so I left.

I checked the last remaining room across the way from mine. The light was okay and there was a rugby ball on the bed. That was it.

Next up was the captain's quarters. I decided to just unlock it for now and go look in the archive for the new crew member discoveries.

I looked at Danny's profile. It said he liked to observe and listen rather than argue, but things always seemed to go his way. It also said he was a hard man to read, which made people a bit uneasy around him. Some kind of poker face master strategist?

I looked at Captain Edward's profile. This was written in the first person, so it was him that was writing these profiles. It laid out his sworn commitment to this mission and had a lovely little prayer at the end, in that big-hearted American way. He admitted his unease about accepting this years long mission to Keplar 22b.

I looked up the actual planet and it's pretty interesting! A planet that may be habitable but we don't know for sure yet! Might look up more later.

All that's left are two unidentified people and a question mark. The two are a man and a woman as seen in the crew photograph, but the question mark person isn't there.

So who owns what bedroom? What we know so far:

The captain and doctor have their own rooms.

Room 11 had a teddy bear. Resident unknown.

Room 12 was Bobby's Room and had the whisky bottle.

Room 13 had a journal of someone who installed vent access for the ARs. Resident unknown.

Room 14 was Abdul's room, presumably because he was in the locker.

Room 15 was my room, whoever I was. I had someone near and dear to me named Lucy.

Room 16 had a rugby ball. Resident unknown.

Another bit of information is the captain mentioning Mei Ling's possible feelings for someone named Nick. That's probably the remaining guy and it's probably me, but I'll keep an open mind until I can say for sure. In any case, there's one name we don't have yet.

I also want to say that it's probable that Danny is the one who installed that vent access, since his body was found in there. I don't know who the rugby ball is connected to though, and I have a feeling that it isn't Large since he doesn't mix well with people at all.

I don't have any information at all on the remaining lady and I don't really want to assume she owns the teddy bear or the rugby ball yet. I need to keep an open mind about that too.

13 the starship damrey - the wonderful reference to 2001: a space odyssey!

Dear Readers,

I made my way to the Warpdrive Room, now that I had access, and went inside.

There was a ladder here that led to the cockpit, but robots couldn't access it. There was a space leech to exterminate at the back of the room and AR-2 was here. Its locomotion was nonoperational, its camera and arm were functional, and its battery was missing. Its arm was reaching for the panel that controlled gravity.

I attached the battery I was carrying and it started working! It was in the middle of switching the gravity to zero and carried it out fully.

What happened next really made me smile. My robot started floating to the tune of Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II, no doubt a direct reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was awesome! :)

My robot floated all the way up into the cockpit, where there was a lovely view of a ringed planet. Then all of a sudden the robot came crashing down and the music stopped.

I looked around the room and behind me was another dead crew member in a spacesuit, sitting in the captain's chair. I identified him and it was indeed Captain Edward.

The regulation for the case in which the captain was deceased involved following the chain of command to install an acting Captain.

I was able to scan the captain's ID card, which finally allowed me to open all doors. Yay!

There was just the space leech to exterminate in the corner, and that was it. I left the room and got ready for more exploring.