Doc, I just finished all three episodes in a slow workday marathon. Absolutely fantastic.
I don't remember much of the game, so it's like I'm right there with you not knowing exactly what's going on. Loving the videos, and your commentary is great. Good stuff.
And for the record, I was actually going to suggest Uncola, but I didn't get around to it.
Episode 4 is uploading as I chill here in the lounge at SXSW Interactive. They have faster upload speeds than I have at home, so I might just sit here for 30 minutes or so.
edit: nevermind - it slowed down to 50kb/s which will take over an hour, and I'm definitely not bumming around here that long.
Brilliantly clever, but I don't think you could put numbers in SoM names, only capital A-Z.
Yeah, that was unfortunate I almost went with "uncola" but then I wouldn't be picking one of your choices. Can't you rename your characters in SoM? Seems some SNES RPG let you do that...
Hahaha. I booted up my save and guess what my Sprite is called? Uncola! I knew I wasn't crazy!
Man, dude, Doc... you've gotta watch your party members' health better! You're driving me nuts! When you were fighting the last boss, I was like, "Hm, you should give Popo a candy." Then he got hit again and I was, "Wow, now he really needs a candy." Then he got hit again and died and you had to use a cup of wishes.
Anyway, another great episode! I like the frequency, too. LPs are becoming a part of my daily entertainment. Keep it up! :^:
Man, dude, Doc... you've gotta watch your party members' health better! You're driving me nuts! When you were fighting the last boss, I was like, "Hm, you should give Popo a candy." Then he got hit again and I was, "Wow, now he really needs a candy." Then he got hit again and died and you had to use a cup of wishes.
Anyway, another great episode! I like the frequency, too. LPs are becoming a part of my daily entertainment. Keep it up! :^:
Haha, yeah... I'm 100% focused on OMG GIANT TIGER ATTACK ATTACK and not so much on Popo's heath there. My multitasking ability in general is rather crappy, so don't expect the trend to change ;-)
I'm all wrapped up in SXSW stuff today and most of this weekend. Hopefully I'll get an episode recorded tomorrow and uploaded Sunday. Maybe I'll record two and stagger the releases a bit.
edit: although, it looks like Marketing guy for the US was like "what? this looks boring, let's add a DRAGON YEAH THAT WOULD BE AWESOME"
edit 2 : I just realized I have like 200 issues of Nintendo Power. I wonder if I have this poster.
edit 3 : Holy crap I have the entire Secret of Mana walkthrough spanning 3 Nintendo Power issues. AWESOMESAUCE.
edit 4 : VICTORY! I have the Secret of Mana poster still attached to the Nintendo Power. Excellent.
True Secret of Mana story #1: I used to name the other characters after classmates that kinda looked like them. The girl was Karin and the Sprite Raymon (no space left for the last D...)
True Secret of Mana story #2: While playing the game, one of my nephews, who always wanted to be a crane driver (which he is now), refused to ever take off his starting armor, the Overalls. A while later, he saved the game over my file. I wasn't happy...
Vangu Vegro on
In my PC: Ryzom, Diablo III, Naruto Shippuden UNSR, The Old Republic
In my 3DS: Super Smash Bros, AC New Leaf
Last game completed: Steamworld Dig
Man, the more I watch these the more I like 'em. I almost pissed myself laughing at the guard not moving. That happens to me just way too goddamn often.
I was like, "Oh god, I forgot to tell him about the Iffish, shit!" Those things are your first "fast enemies" so it's only natural that they gave you some trouble. That being said you're getting a lot better. You handled the last two bosses very well. Just remember to keep a healthy stock of healing items.
Player Tip
Hate to ruin your continuity, but you're not going to the ruins. If you want level two magic and the Ruins Boss elemental weakness, you're going back to Gaia's Naval.
Before you do anything level up your magic. Remember that the girl's magic levels up faster when you're in an area with enemies. I just go to that section North of Pandora for my first first few levels. Use Ice Saber on all three characters and she'll level up in no time. To level up Popo use some of that Ice magic on all three of the iffish outside of the Water Palace. You can save some money by using Luka to restore your MP.
At Gaia's Naval, you'll find a cave in the Dwarf Village. Use ice magic on the orb to unlock the Underground Palace. The Palace is very hard. Enemies like the Ma Goblins make it a pain in the ass. Honestly, I think you should maybe grind a little at the first Ma Goblin and then run through the rest of the dungeon. Eventually you'll get to a boss that shouldn't be too hard for you. Just make sure that Popo has full MP. Use level 1 Ice magic on him for massive damage. After that you get Earth magic and another sealed magic seed.
Now that you have all weapons I'll give the rundown on each. It certainly not definitive and it's tailored more to my play style, but I think it will help you get a better idea about which weapons are worth using.
Sword : This is usually your second or third strongest weapon. It's almost always the first to get upgraded so that's nice. Nearly every weapon in the game has a bonus at each upgrade and the sword is no exception. Too bad it's bonuses aren't that great. The range is fairly short so it's poor against fast enemies. I usually give this weapon to one of my supporting characters.
Spear : Usually second or even the strongest weapon in your inventory. The spear has the perfect balance between long and short range. The bonuses are some of the best in the game. The sprite spear for instance, will cast the balloon effect on your enemies. It almost never fails too! This is a very handy weapon.
Axe : The axe trades spots with the spear as first or second most powerful weapon in the game. It's slow and has short range. Bonuses are fairly unremarkable except for the coveted +5 strength that you receave near the end of the game. You'll need the axe occasionally to cut down obstacles. I'm not a huge fan because of it's speed but you might like it.
Glove : The glove has mid to low power, extremely short range, and very fast rate of attack. It has some pretty bad ass charge attacks as well. The short range pretty much disqualifies it from any use against fast enemies unless you have a death wish. The fast rate of attack is good against small slow enemies that flinch easily. Bonuses are decent.
Bow : One of your strongest long range weapons but still not especially powerful. The arch the arrow makes is useful for attacking enemies at an angle. One draw back to the bow is that it can only hurt one enemy at a time. The bonuses are alright. You get two bows that can confuse enemies. The bow usually gets ignored in favor of other long range weapons.
Boomerang : The attack on this thing is just pitiful. You may like it because it's a long range weapon and it can hit several enemies at once but be prepared to hit the enemy several times. The bonuses are for the most part crappy. I hate this weapon.
Whip : The whip is like the boomerang except powerful enough to be useful. The only downside is that the whip can only hit an enemy when it's at the end of it's long range. I find this weapon very useful for killing fast enemies. Few enemies have attacks that have a range longer than the whip. You need this weapon to cross chasms. The whip gets two forms that can slow enemies down making it the official fast enemy killer.
Pole Dart : I may be the only one who likes it, but I have good reason to. It trades spots with the bow as the most powerful long range weapon. Plus you get that great ark that allows you to hit enemies at an angle. It's better at hitting the enemy than the bow because of it's unique shape. The pole dart gets bonuses that balloons enemies but unlike the spear it receives this bonus twice! Trust me on this one. This should be your favorite long range weapon.
Ok, so I shouldn't be all that embarrassed to get creamed by the iffish. Google video is up for all who care.
Tonberry :
Yeah, I knew about the fire gigas, but got lost in the story . Thanks for all the help with everything-- walkthrough, weapons, and all that. That's a lot of info to type! I just read over it now, I'll read over it again when I get home tonight and record chapter 5.
Yeah I'm going to grind as needed for now. Later on, when the spells get crazy, I'll focus more time on grinding those off camera and showcasing them for you guys.
A few of you have commented on the music so I thought I'd show everyone how to listen to the soundtrack *legally. It involves the use of a relatively new music format, SPC.
First of all you need an SPC player. There are standalone players out there, but I use Winamp. This walk through will tell you how to do it with Winamp. The plug in you need for Winamp can be found here. Download SNESamp and place it in your Winamp/plugins folder. Make sure Winamp is closed and then click the SAmp333.exe. Installation is pretty straightforward. Now open Winamp and go to preferences. Check the Input tab and look for Alpha-II SPC Player. If it's there you've installed successfully. You now have a working SPC player.
Next go to this page. Click "Download SPC soundtrack." It should be a very small file called sd2.rsn. Open the file with winamp and you should be able to listen to the complete Secret of Mana OST in SPC format.
Hate winamp? I do too. So let me teach you how to convert these into other formats like Mp3s. Go back to preferences and click Output. Look for the Nullsoft Disk writer plug in and configure it. First choose which directory you want your new files to go. For conversion into Mp3s click the "Convert to format" check box. Click the button below and make sure it's on MPEG-layer 3. You can also edit the bitrate from here. Click OK to finish configuring. Once again click the rsn to play it. The player should now go through every song, convert it, and then spit it out in the directory you picked earlier. You now have a fairly complete OST with decent quality. The only annoying part is that you need to edit the title and tags.
*and by legally I mean there's no law that I'm aware of that mentions the process. I can't say much about how it works but I can tell you that it's essentially a rip of the music directly from the game. I'm not breaking any rules by discussing it but it is borderline.
Actually endless Remedying in an area with monsters is the quickest way to do things. Just don't remedy the girl and you can chain cast that thing really really fast. 1 MP each, need 100/(10-(level you're going for) casts to level as I recall. You get 9 experience per cast at level 0, once you hit 100 you get level 1 with that spell. Similarly with the Sprite, use tangle to level up Gnome really fast. And Gnome has Earth Slide, which is the weakness of something like 40% of the game's bosses.
My usual set up with my friend was: Boy got the Sword, Girl got the Spear, Sprite got something to stay out of the way (bow, usually). He played the boy, I took the girl, and switched to the sprite for chain casting in battles.
enlightenedbum on
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
I think that, within the first five minutes of having two characters you have pressed select more than I have in all of my playthroughs.
It sped things along, and makes the forest with the Chobin Hoods much more manageable in my early levels. I haven't done it as much since.
Yeah, I noticed it was helping with them (until everything went south, anyway). That's always been the hardest section of the game for me, too. Which is fitting since it's right before you get a major reward (magic).
Player Tip
Tossing my own weapon votes into the mix.
Give Doc the Sword, since it's thematic and fitting. Switch to the axe if you need to smash rocks or whatever. Let Rachel have the spear (give her the whip for areas with a lot of gaps that need to be jumped) since, as you noted, she does do pretty decent damage and you won't really be casting as much with her. The spear has a decent range, too, so she'll be able to deal damage without getting right into the melee. Popo can have whatever ranged weapon you want, since it doesn't matter since he sucks at attacking.
Just to show you guys how dedicated I am to this LP, I am vowing not to buy Smash Bros. Brawl until it is finished and all magic and all weapons are leveled up. That is, all weapons, regardless of character (not all weapons for all characters).
So there you have it. Faith in the LP! Episode 5 is uploading now.
Just to show you guys how dedicated I am to this LP, I am vowing not to buy Smash Bros. Brawl until it is finished and all magic and all weapons are leveled up. That is, all weapons, regardless of character (not all weapons for all characters).
So there you have it. Faith in the LP! Episode 5 is uploading now.
I know, I know; but I have enough self-awareness to realize if I buy it today, you guys wouldn't hear from me for, like, months.
Months.
edit: argh, sorry guys, the uploading failed because I switched rooms here at sxsw. I may have to wait until I'm home to upload it. I should really upload from my home server. Learning++
edit 2 : Vangu - I did the same thing. That is, named the characters after classmates. The girl was Carrie and the dude was Sohale. So, Carrie or Sohale, if you're here, congratulations.
Apologies to those subscribed to the podcast feed. I had difficulties uploading and Blip can't tell the difference between a completed upload, and one that failed, so it creates a new episode every time I try. I'll hopefully resolve all these issues from now on.
Posts
I don't remember much of the game, so it's like I'm right there with you not knowing exactly what's going on. Loving the videos, and your commentary is great. Good stuff.
And for the record, I was actually going to suggest Uncola, but I didn't get around to it.
D/P: 2621-2512-5050
edit: nevermind - it slowed down to 50kb/s which will take over an hour, and I'm definitely not bumming around here that long.
Hahaha. I booted up my save and guess what my Sprite is called? Uncola! I knew I wasn't crazy!
Hi-5.
Episode 4 - "A Childhood Foe Defeated" or "Evil Death Fish of Doom"
Anyway, another great episode! I like the frequency, too. LPs are becoming a part of my daily entertainment. Keep it up! :^:
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Haha, yeah... I'm 100% focused on OMG GIANT TIGER ATTACK ATTACK and not so much on Popo's heath there. My multitasking ability in general is rather crappy, so don't expect the trend to change ;-)
I'm all wrapped up in SXSW stuff today and most of this weekend. Hopefully I'll get an episode recorded tomorrow and uploaded Sunday. Maybe I'll record two and stagger the releases a bit.
Who do I have to kill to get some posters made of those two images? :x
(Minus the characters of course.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Secret-of-Mana-Poster-SNES-Super-Nintendo-Manna_W0QQitemZ360029055624QQihZ023QQcategoryZ187QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
disclaimer : not my auction.
edit: although, it looks like Marketing guy for the US was like "what? this looks boring, let's add a DRAGON YEAH THAT WOULD BE AWESOME"
edit 2 : I just realized I have like 200 issues of Nintendo Power. I wonder if I have this poster.
edit 3 : Holy crap I have the entire Secret of Mana walkthrough spanning 3 Nintendo Power issues. AWESOMESAUCE.
edit 4 : VICTORY! I have the Secret of Mana poster still attached to the Nintendo Power. Excellent.
I always thought they were feathers.
True Secret of Mana story #1: I used to name the other characters after classmates that kinda looked like them. The girl was Karin and the Sprite Raymon (no space left for the last D...)
True Secret of Mana story #2: While playing the game, one of my nephews, who always wanted to be a crane driver (which he is now), refused to ever take off his starting armor, the Overalls. A while later, he saved the game over my file. I wasn't happy...
In my 3DS: Super Smash Bros, AC New Leaf
Last game completed: Steamworld Dig
Steam: pazython
Player Tip
Before you do anything level up your magic. Remember that the girl's magic levels up faster when you're in an area with enemies. I just go to that section North of Pandora for my first first few levels. Use Ice Saber on all three characters and she'll level up in no time. To level up Popo use some of that Ice magic on all three of the iffish outside of the Water Palace. You can save some money by using Luka to restore your MP.
At Gaia's Naval, you'll find a cave in the Dwarf Village. Use ice magic on the orb to unlock the Underground Palace. The Palace is very hard. Enemies like the Ma Goblins make it a pain in the ass. Honestly, I think you should maybe grind a little at the first Ma Goblin and then run through the rest of the dungeon. Eventually you'll get to a boss that shouldn't be too hard for you. Just make sure that Popo has full MP. Use level 1 Ice magic on him for massive damage. After that you get Earth magic and another sealed magic seed.
Now that you have all weapons I'll give the rundown on each. It certainly not definitive and it's tailored more to my play style, but I think it will help you get a better idea about which weapons are worth using.
Sword : This is usually your second or third strongest weapon. It's almost always the first to get upgraded so that's nice. Nearly every weapon in the game has a bonus at each upgrade and the sword is no exception. Too bad it's bonuses aren't that great. The range is fairly short so it's poor against fast enemies. I usually give this weapon to one of my supporting characters.
Spear : Usually second or even the strongest weapon in your inventory. The spear has the perfect balance between long and short range. The bonuses are some of the best in the game. The sprite spear for instance, will cast the balloon effect on your enemies. It almost never fails too! This is a very handy weapon.
Axe : The axe trades spots with the spear as first or second most powerful weapon in the game. It's slow and has short range. Bonuses are fairly unremarkable except for the coveted +5 strength that you receave near the end of the game. You'll need the axe occasionally to cut down obstacles. I'm not a huge fan because of it's speed but you might like it.
Glove : The glove has mid to low power, extremely short range, and very fast rate of attack. It has some pretty bad ass charge attacks as well. The short range pretty much disqualifies it from any use against fast enemies unless you have a death wish. The fast rate of attack is good against small slow enemies that flinch easily. Bonuses are decent.
Bow : One of your strongest long range weapons but still not especially powerful. The arch the arrow makes is useful for attacking enemies at an angle. One draw back to the bow is that it can only hurt one enemy at a time. The bonuses are alright. You get two bows that can confuse enemies. The bow usually gets ignored in favor of other long range weapons.
Boomerang : The attack on this thing is just pitiful. You may like it because it's a long range weapon and it can hit several enemies at once but be prepared to hit the enemy several times. The bonuses are for the most part crappy. I hate this weapon.
Whip : The whip is like the boomerang except powerful enough to be useful. The only downside is that the whip can only hit an enemy when it's at the end of it's long range. I find this weapon very useful for killing fast enemies. Few enemies have attacks that have a range longer than the whip. You need this weapon to cross chasms. The whip gets two forms that can slow enemies down making it the official fast enemy killer.
Pole Dart : I may be the only one who likes it, but I have good reason to. It trades spots with the bow as the most powerful long range weapon. Plus you get that great ark that allows you to hit enemies at an angle. It's better at hitting the enemy than the bow because of it's unique shape. The pole dart gets bonuses that balloons enemies but unlike the spear it receives this bonus twice! Trust me on this one. This should be your favorite long range weapon.
Your Current Signature Picture[/SIGPIC]
Google video is up for all who care.
Tonberry :
Your Current Signature Picture[/SIGPIC]
Are you going to grind the magic levels? I know Fireball looks and Gem Missile look pretty wicked when maxed out.
Nice pic, though I think they could also be ears. Just sayin', is all.
First of all you need an SPC player. There are standalone players out there, but I use Winamp. This walk through will tell you how to do it with Winamp. The plug in you need for Winamp can be found here. Download SNESamp and place it in your Winamp/plugins folder. Make sure Winamp is closed and then click the SAmp333.exe. Installation is pretty straightforward. Now open Winamp and go to preferences. Check the Input tab and look for Alpha-II SPC Player. If it's there you've installed successfully. You now have a working SPC player.
Next go to this page. Click "Download SPC soundtrack." It should be a very small file called sd2.rsn. Open the file with winamp and you should be able to listen to the complete Secret of Mana OST in SPC format.
Hate winamp? I do too. So let me teach you how to convert these into other formats like Mp3s. Go back to preferences and click Output. Look for the Nullsoft Disk writer plug in and configure it. First choose which directory you want your new files to go. For conversion into Mp3s click the "Convert to format" check box. Click the button below and make sure it's on MPEG-layer 3. You can also edit the bitrate from here. Click OK to finish configuring. Once again click the rsn to play it. The player should now go through every song, convert it, and then spit it out in the directory you picked earlier. You now have a fairly complete OST with decent quality. The only annoying part is that you need to edit the title and tags.
*and by legally I mean there's no law that I'm aware of that mentions the process. I can't say much about how it works but I can tell you that it's essentially a rip of the music directly from the game. I'm not breaking any rules by discussing it but it is borderline.
Your Current Signature Picture[/SIGPIC]
My usual set up with my friend was: Boy got the Sword, Girl got the Spear, Sprite got something to stay out of the way (bow, usually). He played the boy, I took the girl, and switched to the sprite for chain casting in battles.
I think that, within the first five minutes of having two characters you have pressed select more than I have in all of my playthroughs.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It sped things along, and makes the forest with the Chobin Hoods much more manageable in my early levels. I haven't done it as much since.
If anyone knows how to concatenate h264 mov files without re-encoding (passthrough) let me know.
Player Tip
Give Doc the Sword, since it's thematic and fitting. Switch to the axe if you need to smash rocks or whatever. Let Rachel have the spear (give her the whip for areas with a lot of gaps that need to be jumped) since, as you noted, she does do pretty decent damage and you won't really be casting as much with her. The spear has a decent range, too, so she'll be able to deal damage without getting right into the melee. Popo can have whatever ranged weapon you want, since it doesn't matter since he sucks at attacking.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
So there you have it. Faith in the LP! Episode 5 is uploading now.
Dude.
There's dedication, and then there's madness.
Months.
edit: argh, sorry guys, the uploading failed because I switched rooms here at sxsw. I may have to wait until I'm home to upload it. I should really upload from my home server. Learning++
edit 2 : Vangu - I did the same thing. That is, named the characters after classmates. The girl was Carrie and the dude was Sohale. So, Carrie or Sohale, if you're here, congratulations.
Secret of Mana : Let's Play - Episode 5 - "This is my angry face"
Apologies to those subscribed to the podcast feed. I had difficulties uploading and Blip can't tell the difference between a completed upload, and one that failed, so it creates a new episode every time I try. I'll hopefully resolve all these issues from now on.
I get the same thing too.
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