Welcome to Rupee Shards, my own little world for whatever I feel like writing about. (Gosh!) For those who don't know me, I'm an administrator of OtakuBoards and a theOtaku chat moderator, and I've been hanging around here since September 2001. I'm an avid gamer and anime fan so most of what you'll see here will relate to one or the other.
Nintendo WFC Friend Codes
Wii Number: 8387-7566-7057-0450
Super Smash Bros. Brawl: 1504-5385-2566 (Des)
Rock Band 2: 4667-9521-5706
Mario Kart Wii: 4124-7294-7708
Animal Crossing: Wild World: 4553-2727-4864 (Desbreko in Kakariko)
Well, Christmas has come and gone once more. I had a lot of fun yesterday and none of it involved my PC or the internet—OMG, like, I know, right? My two oldest brothers are up from the Bay Area for Christmas so all four of us have been hanging out.
Anyway, I'm guessing people will skim the post looking for the list of loot before reading the rest of it (or is that just me? >_>;) so, without farther ado, here it is:
• Rock Band 2 Special Edition bundle for the Wii
• Component video cable for the Wii (for hooking it up to the huge HDTV out in the living room)
• Digital converter box (for the crappy old analog TV in my room)
• $50
• A bunch of candy
Not a huge list but I'm happy with it. RB2 was my one big present that most of my family went together to buy me since it cost a little over $200 after tax. But, considering how I got Guitar Hero II shortly after Christmas last year and was playing it off and on until a few days ago, I think RB2 will last me a long time to come.
Speaking of RB2, we had to go on a small adventure to find one of the bundles. See, Harmonix put out a press release saying that the bundle would ship out to retailers on Dec. 18 and that it wouldn't arrive for 5-7 days. That is, retailers wouldn't get it until a couple days before Christmas. So, me and my mom happening to be up bright and early on Dec. 23, we decided to go look for one. (Yes, I went with her to buy my own Christmas present. She knows by now to bring someone along who knows what they're talking about so that she doesn't accidentally buy the 360 version or RB1 for the Wii or something by mistake.) It turned out they had actually shipped earlier than announced and retailers had gotten them the previous week, with the result being that everywhere in town was already sold out. ... Thanks, Harmonix, you guys did a great job on not saying anything about that.
When we checked at one of the GameStop stores in town they said there was, however, a bundle available at a GameStop in a city about 40 miles away. After checking one more place in town and coming up empty, I was surprised when my mom said she'd drive all the way out there to get it. I hadn't said anything about it and had just resigned myself to waiting until a bit after Christmas to find a copy, but she said it was fine when I asked if she was sure she wanted to bother. So we had the girl at GameStop call the other store and hold the bundle for us and off we went. A couple hours later we were back home with a shiney new Rock Band 2 bundle in hand—which then promptly disappeared for two days until I unwrapped it yesterday. :p
I seriously was not expecting her to go through that much trouble, though, so it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling inside when she did. My parents can be pretty cool at times. ^_^
So, anyway, I haven't played it much yet but I'm already loving the drums in RB2. I have pretty good rhythm so I jumped in and immediately did excellent on easy. Medium was a bit more tricky 'cause I haven't developed any muscle memory whatsoever for drumming yet, but I can definitely see myself rocking out on expert eventually. Also, having the green notes swapped from the left to the right side of the note chart was screwing me up because I'd be wanting to hit the yellow pad for blue notes since I'm used to blue being farther to the right on the chart; I cannot see any reason for swapping green's position other than to screw people over and it annoys me.
The new guitar is going to take a bit of getting used to as well. I like that the fret buttons don't stick up and that they're a little closer together than on the GHII guitar so that I don't have to move my hand as far when sliding to reach green and orange notes. But I don't like that they feel squishy, without any click to them whatsoever; it's harder to tell when exactly the button gets pressed and it was screwing with my timing for hammer-ons/pull-offs. That will take some adjustment.
The strum bar is also a lot looser and kind of squishy feeling. So far I like it more for double strumming since it takes less strength to move it (and its shape is just easier to grip between the thumb and index finger), which translates to more accurate timing for longer periods of fast double strumming. But it seems a little harder to do fast single strumming with it since it doesn't spring back to center as fast after a strum as the GHII guitar. I think it should still be possible, it will just require some adjustment to the strumming motion to take into account the lack of springiness.
And now I am going to go pwn the game's solo guitar career on hard to unlock more tracks.
This is it! The last one! It wasn't quite one video per day (did anyone seriously expect me to keep that up?) but I am happy that I managed to finish this project in a timely manner. Now, if only I could get paid for doing this...
The climb up Ganon's Tower from 2F is definitely the hardest part of the game other than Ganon himself. Even when you know the best strategies for getting through each room, actually pulling everything off correctly is extremely difficult.
I had a couple close calls with the red Goriyas at the start where I was surprised I didn't get hit by their fireballs. And then the Beamos rooms... Those are just evil. I practiced those a lot and I still had to resort to using Bombos in the last one. It's just ridiculous.
The Lanmolas are actually a lot harder with that fireball turret thrown in. The timing on the fireballs match up way too well with the dirt clods from the Lanmolas and makes it really hard to find openings where you can hit them without a fireball nailing you right afterwards.
Wizrobes continue to be a joke.
The spike room with the two masked beetles and two fireball turrets is annoying. Again, the fireballs always seem to come at the worst possible times in there. I stepped on the spikes to get the key because I just didn't care.
Moldorm is really easy the second time because you can kill it without letting it speed up. The platform is also bigger, making it easier to dodge. I'm not sure how this one was supposed to be harder than the original fight in the Mountain Tower.
Agahnim also continues to be a joke, especially after having beaten Trinexx earlier. The two clones do make it significantly harder to beat him without getting hit but, unless you're already on the verge of death, he does so little damage that you're unlikely to die.
The majority of the run's re-records were spent on part 2 here, mainly in the Beamos rooms. In fact, five or so of the twenty-one total were spent just attemping to find a good way to clear the last Beamos room until I got fed up and decided to use Bombos. The Lanmolas also gave me some trouble but not too much.
And thus Desbreko did pwn A Link to the Past once more.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Lv8 Ganon's Tower - Part 2 of 2
Part 2 of 2 of my Level 8: Ganon's Tower walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 20 Hearts, Golden Sword, Silver Arrows, 1/2 Magic
- The Golden Sword and Silver Arrows can be obtained by buying a super bomb at the bomb shop north of the Swamp Palace and using it to blow open the cracked wall in the Pyramid. Inside is a fairy pond where you can upgrade your sword and bow.
- The 1/2 Magic upgrade can be obtained by jumping down the well next to the smithy's shop in Kakariko Village and sprinkling some magic powder on the statue within.
[00:13] Goriyas
The Mirror Shield can block the red Goriyas' fireballs, which makes killing them in narrow spaces much easier.
[01:46] Beamos
The Mirror Shield cannot, however, block Beamos' lasers so be careful around them.
[02:12] Ice and conveyor belts
Go through the center of this room, don't try to run around the outside on the conveyor belts.
[02:35] Miniboss: Lanmolas
The good news is that the Lanmolas only take two slashes from the Golden Sword to kill. The bad news is, there's now a fireball turret in the room, which makes things a lot harder than you might think. Remember that the dirt clods fly out diagonally until there's only one Lanmola left, at which point they fly out in all eight directions.
[04:57] Miniboss: Moldorm
There's no difference to this fight the second time around except that the platform is a different shape. Two spin attacks from the Golden Sword will kill the Moldorm without ever letting it speed up.
[05:38] Boss: Agahnim
Agahnim is back and this time he has two clones with him. You can tell them apart by their faded color so position yourself to hit the fireballs back at the real Agahnim. You won't have to worry about lightning attacks this time but the real Agahnim will still occasionally throw a blue fireball ring. Hit it with your sword as usual to split it and then hope your shield blocks it. Spin attacks can be useful for reflecting fireballs from multiple angles.
Ah, Ganon's Tower, the longest and hardest dungeon in the game. While I'm amazed I got through all the rest in one video, there was never much doubt that I'd have to do this one in two parts. As such, I decided to split it up so that part 1 shows the two paths to the big key and Red Mail, and part 2 shows the rest of the tower leading up to the boss. I think it worked out pretty well this way; the videos are about even length, too.
Personally, I find the left path to be much easier than the right, which is why I do it first. The map is also on the left path, which is much handier than the compass on the right. Other than the red skeleton room with all the four-way fireball turrets, there's nothing on it that's especially hard once you know what to do.
The right path, on the other hand, has crap like the conveyor belt room with the braziers you have to light in order to open the door at the bottom. (Both the other rooms off of that one are traps, by the way.) Then there's the falling floor tile room that I still have not found a way to get through without either getting hit or using the Cane of Byrna/Magic Cape. In fact, all through the right path they try to dump you into pits. It's just a huge pain compared to the left path.
Fighting the Armos Knights again with the Silver Arrows is always amusing. Silver Arrows are, by the way, the most powerful weapon in the game; I believe they do somewhere between two and three times the damage of the Golden Sword. As such, they kill each Armos Knight in one hit. The room may have an icy floor but you hardly have to move to plug each one with an arrow.
I didn't have to use many re-records on the first part here. I've gotten the left path down really well and there's only a couple rooms on the right that give me any trouble. The really hard rooms come in part 2.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Lv8 Ganon's Tower - Part 1 of 2
Part 1 of 2 of my Level 8: Ganon's Tower walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 20 Hearts, Golden Sword, Silver Arrows, 1/2 Magic, Cane of Byrna
- The Golden Sword and Silver Arrows can be obtained by buying a super bomb at the bomb shop north of the Swamp Palace and using it to blow open the cracked wall in the Pyramid. Inside is a fairy pond where you can upgrade your sword and bow.
- The 1/2 Magic upgrade can be obtained by jumping down the well next to the smithy's shop in Kakariko Village and sprinkling some magic powder on the statue within.
- The Cane of Byrna can be found on Death Mountain in the Dark World by jumping off the cliff just below the warp tile by the Mountain Tower and entering the cave on the ledge below.
[00:09] Useless door
Don't waste a key on this door, you can get to the other side of it by going down the right staircase on 2F instead of the left one.
[02:59] Bomb propulsion
There's an invisible path over the pit in this room that you can reveal either by lighting the braziers or by using Ether. However, it's easiest just to blow yourself across with a bomb.
[03:22] Miniboss: Armos Knights
The only difference between these Armos Knights and the ones in the East Palace is that the floor is icy. If you got the Silver Arrows it will only take one hit each to kill them.
[06:28] Invisible path
There's an invisible path between the platforms in this room. Just dash straight left across it.
[06:39] Two paths, one destination
Both the left and right staircases on 2F lead you to this room. However, the left path has the map on it and I find it to be easier.
Turtle Rock is hard. Like, really hard. Hard enough to bring me under ten hearts while I was wandering through it to reacquaint myself with it. ... Okay, maybe that doesn't sound too bad, but it's actually saying a lot. Making this video was even harder than the Ice Palace one, both because of how hard it is and because of its sheer length. I ended up having to skip a room that I was planning on showing and the video still ended up just below YouTube's time limit.
There are just so many rooms in Turtle Rock where even a little mistake will get you hit. And usually getting hit means taking two hearts of damage even with the Blue Mail. Like those Chain Chomp things? Those are a huge pain to get past. And the multisection hoppy things? If you're not close enough to them when you release the spin attack you're liable to get hit, either by a section flying back at you or the rest of the body as it continues hopping. But getting that close to something that both moves faster than you and jumps around in unpredictable directions is also a risk in itself.
Trinexx is also a pain. And the speed kill trick that I used is even harder to pull off correctly than beating him the normal way. It took a lot of practice, both when I made my old speed kill video and before recording this video, so that I could do it consistently.
But this was a really awesome run of the dungeon. I only took one hit from a fireball and only had to use five re-records, all but one of which were just to cover stupid little time wasters like accidentally selecting the wrong item. The other was because I screwed up the timing in the dark platform maze the first time. Pretty much everything else I pulled off first try, including the Chain Chomp room, the rupee room, and Trinexx.
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Lv7 Turtle Rock
My complete Level 7: Turtle Rock walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
- The Golden Sword and Silver Arrows can be obtained by buying a super bomb at the bomb shop north of the Swamp Palace and using it to blow open the cracked wall in the Pyramid. Inside is a fairy pond where you can upgrade your sword and bow.
- The 1/2 Magic upgrade can be obtained by jumping down the well next to the smithy's shop in Kakariko Village and sprinkling some magic powder on the statue within.
[00:26] Laser eyes
There are two types of laser eyes, half open and fully open. Half open eyes, such as this one, will only shoot if you face them, so back out of the doorway. Fully open eyes will shoot at you regardless.
[04:33] Light World detour #1
Use the Magic Mirror to return to the Light World on this ledge. Inside the cave is a Piece of Heart, which will bump you up to 19 hearts if you entered with 18 3/4.
[06:50] Dark platform maze
This room can sap your hearts quickly if you don't know the correct path to take. From the start, hold in right at the first intersection and then keep holding in down to reach the switch. From there, follow the path as shown in the video to reach the door.
[07:32] Side blocking
Hold out your sword for a spin attack to protect your side from the eye lasers as you walk over and up to these chests.
[08:06] Light World detour #2
Warping back to the Light World on this ledge and entering the cave will let you grab two fairies. Also, if you're playing the GBA version, exiting a re-entering the dungeon here will act as a save point that you can restart from.
[09:19] Boss: Trinexx
In this video I use the speed kill method of defeating Trinexx to save time. To see the normal method of beating it, along with a written strategy, take a look at my other no damage video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifwDTIE5W1I
Misery Mire is a fun dungeon in that it's not especially big but it has a complicated layout. If you don't know the correct order to do things in it can leave you wandering back and forth in search of keys and crystal switches. It also actively tries to lead you the wrong way in some places. In particular, it seems to really want you to forget about the big chest and attempt to get through the big fireball room of death on B2 without the Cane of Somaria.
Wizrobes make their first appearance in Misery Mire but they're incredibly easy. I remember when A Link to the Past was new, they seemed like such a letdown after the horribly nasty Wizrobes in the original Legend of Zelda. For me, there was nothing harder in the original Zelda than a room filled with a mix of red and blue Wizrobes. In LttP they're so easy to kill that rooms where they'll just keep appearing make handy heart refill stations.
I ended up getting hit in the flying floor tile room just before the compass. I was thinking that my shield would block the fireball, since it was out to the side while I was using the Fire Rod, but it didn't work. I'm not sure if the shield doesn't block things while using secondary items (it will while swinging the sword) or if my timing was just off. Alas, it would've been incredibly cool if it had worked.
Vitreous is a fun fight because you get to totally unload with the bow and arrows and it's actually tough, unlike the Armos Knights. Plus, everyone loves shooting eyeballs, right?
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Zelda A Link to the Past - Lv6 Misery Mire
My complete Level 6: Misery Mire walkthrough for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Played in real time on Snes9x v1.43+ with re-records used to optimize video length.
Equipment checklist: 17 Hearts, 1/2 Magic, Cane of Byrna
- The 1/2 Magic upgrade can be obtained by jumping down the well next to the smithy's shop in Kakariko Village and sprinkling some magic powder on the statue within.
- The Cane of Byrna can be found on Death Mountain in the Dark World by jumping off the cliff just below the warp tile by the Mountain Tower and entering the cave on the ledge below.
[00:04] Dash bounce
You can use the Hookshot to cross this pit but dash bouncing across is faster and looks so much cooler.
[00:14] Wizrobes
Their magic waves are not actually as wide as they appear. Unless you're directly in front of them, they'll usually miss.
[01:05] Chest on the spikes
You'll need to use either the Cane of Byrna or the Magic Cape to avoid damage while getting this small key.
[07:08] Boss: Vitreous
Yet more giant eyeballs! The bow and arrows are effective against Vitreous but don't let the small eyeballs swarm you; fend them off with your sword if they get too close. When the big eyeball lifts up out of the slime, run to either side of the room to avoid its lightning attack. Once the small eyeballs are all dead, stand in front of the big one and unload eight arrows into it or keep knocking it back with your sword. Throughout the fight, be careful not to walk up into the slime past where the darker green slime is or else you'll get hurt.
