Revenge of the Hand: MacDaddy Mike's playthrough topic part 2

Through the waters and dwarves of W. Dragon Isle. Hi-Ho Tank was formidable. It killed a member, but luckily a living one had Revive, so no one lost out on stat bonus.

I even just bested the mobs and bosses of Mount Pyre. Pulled off a few uses of Frog Prince summon and got some Shiny Dews. The damage is massive, while it requires a specific turn setup.

Build up everyone's element grids. Defend to recover stamina and ensure enemies got their turns out of the way. Blue Summon user cast a level 1 blue, other 2 members cast level 1 blues, Blue Summon user does a weak attack to recover their 5th level element slot, SUMMON. Helps if the summoner has at least 1.0 stamina recovery. (Leena does, she was my summoner.)

Peppor: W- W- W- W- W- W- W- W- W-
W- W- W- W- W- W- W- W- W- W-
WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?!

I now stand in front of Fort Dragonia.

Solt and Peppor are two of the most fun characters to encounter in an RPG. They make tutorials entertaining, and that's a difficult feat in itself.

I just recorded some footage for Yoshi's Island, about three videos worth, so I'll spend the weekend getting them produced and uploaded and then I should be on a steady release schedule, probably one every two days or maybe even one every day if I can keep it up. This topic will be coming to a close soon, and I'm hoping to be done by March 12th, 'cause that's when I started this adventure.
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Attractive people love Mac's playthrough videos ~ Reliable Internet Personality
http://www.youtube.com/user/MacDaddyMike

I'm aiming for an update every day, but no promises. I'm keeping the videos to about 18 minutes long. Since the stages are normally fairly quick in this game, I shouldn't have any issues with the videos running for too much time.

Man, I love this game.
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Attractive people love Mac's playthrough videos ~ Reliable Internet Personality
http://www.youtube.com/user/MacDaddyMike

You have The Lonely Island to thank for the BAWS meme.

On Yoshi's Island, I just about finished World 1, as in I've 100%'d the normal 8 levels. I will do that extra level that unlocks for doing so after I've climbed up the game's difficulty curve, to keep my sanity in tact early on.

On Chrono Cross, I've just been kitty'd, probably missed out on a couple element trapping opportunities in Fort Dragonia. So long, Leena and Kid. Hello.. Sprigg and Harle. Sprigg's not too useful yet, so she'll soon be replaced by Radius.

Will watch Yoshi now.

Yeah, I'm saving those 'til the end, probably will film it after I finish the game but will release it before the last video.

I've never given her much attention but I think in my next playthrough I'll go through the characters that all have a really unique gimmick to them, like Pip.

I may have to put YI up against something down the line, but I'm not sure what. I don't think it's a fair fight against SMW.

On Chrono Cross, I've gained access to a boat with the awesome home world voyage music I posted in VGM. Which means exploration time. The newly recruited Zappa and Van are in my active party for now. While I remember most of the events coming up at this point in the game, it's been long enough since I played that I forgot when you do everything. I remember the 6 Dragons; Magical Dreamers sequence; Dead Sea; Fort Dragonia to be de-kitty'd, I just don't remember what order it all comes in.

I'll finish these some day within a month. I've just beaten Demon's Soul and now have Dark Souls, so I'll be on that for a while. So much for preserving my sanity.
_
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Fair Lucrezia could not sate her appetite for lovers.
But I suspect she would be fine, with two or three more brothers.

I've already mentioned that Van is one of my favorite minor characters just because of how he's set up in the opposing worlds, but Zappa's a fun one to have around that I always forget about. I wouldn't have minded putting him into my latest party but I forgot to seek him out.

I've been to a lot of orchestral and symphonic concerts before, but none have been this fun. While Videogames Live tried to make the show feel like a LAN party that happened to have an orchestra playing, this show was actually about the music and not just for fans of videogames. Oddly enough, both shows had One Winged Angel (FFVII) as their encore piece, but whereas Tommy Tallarico's guitar shredding seemed a bit over-the-top and goofy, Distant Worlds had a wonderful performance that still allowed for audience participation, cuing the audience to shout "Sephiroth" along with the music and even posting the rest of the choral lyrics on the screen for us to sing along with.

The screen was actually one of the more fun features--during each piece they would play clips from the respective game, be it of the characters or themes being showcased, and at times they even had it cued up really well along with the music like in having it show the sending ritual for To Zanarkand (FFX) or having the soloists spell out C-H-O-C-O-B-O along with the video, so it was like having a music video being made live right in front of you. The conductor and producer of the concert series, Arnie Roth, introduced about half of the songs, with the rest kind of introducing themselves when the orchestra began to play.

The show opened with the Opening Bombing Run (FFVII), which surprised nobody as it's a great tune to start with, and then followed with Don't Be Afraid (FFVIII). After that was the FF 1-3 medley, which actually incorporated different themes than any other version of the medley I had heard before, and took me completely by surprised when it didn't end on the Main Anthem but instead went into an absolutely amazing and fast-paced arrangement of The Rebel Army (FFII). Also in the first half was Dear Friends (FFV) and Vamo'Alla Flamenco (FFIX), both of which featured a classical guitar soloist, and then Theme of Love (FFIV), Blinded By Light (FFXIII) and ended with a Chocobo medley, aside from a couple of pieces I'll get to in a bit. The second half opened with Man With the Machine Gun (FFVIII) and also had You're Not Alone (FFIX), To Zanarkand (FFX), Clash on the Big Bridge (FFV), Ronfaure (FFXI) and ended with Terra's Theme (FFVI).

But the real highlight of the night was Susan Calloway, who is not only gorgeous in a black dress but is one of the most impressive female vocalists I've ever had the pleasure of hearing. She sang Suteki Da Ne (FFX), Eyes on Me (FFVIII) and Kiss Me Goodbye (FFXII), and she was absolutely flawless in all of them. Incredible range, incredible power as well as incredible grace. She made some of the most awe-inspiring performances seem absolutely effortless, like it was a walk in the park for her. Absolutely rocked the show, and after Suteki Da Ne I was pleading to the gods that they would do Kiss Me Goodbye later in the show (there was no program, intentionally, to keep us all guessing). She made Angela Aki sound like Ashley Simpson.

My favorite pieces of the night were Vamo'Alla Flamenco and Kiss Me Goodbye, but the entire show was terrific. Highly recommend to any fan of the series and I recommend bringing anyone who's NOT a fan of the series, because I can guarantee that they'll love the music and will enjoy the show.

All of the tedious parts of the game (basically the dragon quest) are officially over. Looking forward to the rest.

There's a secret path that leads to a one-up in one of the cave levels that I was never able to figure out either. If you know how to get it, let me know!

I have no idea. None whatsoever.