The Temple of the Mighty Bague

Harmonised! My first game this year! All three endings - sad, meh, and happy - so Boss Rush mode and music player mode are both unlocked. I was level 49 at the end and finished it with 100% so the boss, like the other bosses in the game, was pretty straightforward. All in all, despite getting off to a bit of a shaky started, Harmony of Dissonance is an excellent game. It clocked in at a shade over ten and a half hours, in the end, and no frustration in sight.

Some of the bits of Dracula were a real git to find, and you need them for the good ending (and even to reach the final-final boss) but worth it in the end. As ever with metroidvania style games, there’s a significant amount of back tracking, but by the time you get to level 40 none of the baddies pose much of a threat.

So onwards and upwards - time to finish Dawn of Sorrow.

Complet0rised! The last day in court seems to have been pretty much real time - it took hours. The story was coming so thick and fast, though, that I was carried onwards with the momentum, meaning the last half of the day was done in one sitting.

I think I got the ‘glum’ ending because I presented the wrong bit of evidence to Edgeworth out in the lobby. Not to worry though. It’s still an ACE game and one of the best I’ve played this year - definitely up there beside Resident Evil 4.

Trouble is, I want a sequel NOW!

Phew! The last boss was a tough one! Took me three attempts, but I got there in the end. The last save was standing at a little over 35 hours, bringing the cartridge total to about 60 hours. In both Final Fantasy I and in II, there was a lot more levelling, optional sub quests, and item gathering I could have done. I think I could probably have added another 15 or so hours on.

As well as that, I’ve unlocked two sub-games, one in each of the main games, where you play a few dungeons as secondary characters. I’ll do these eventually, but for now I’m all Final Fantasied out. Which is a shame really, as I managed to pick up Final Fantasy VI for the PS1 in Game the other day for three quid

So - verdict - ACEBEST cart - one of the best on the GBA. Two tips for those of you following in my footsteps, though (and I know there are at least two of you):

1) Talk to Paul before you enter the cyclone. He has some stuff which you’re going to need and you won’t be able to get it after this point.

2) Talk to the Widow in the castle where the Wyvvern was after the Wyvvern has hatched.

If you don’t do these two things, the final stages of the game will be very very difficult. Trust me.

Complet0rated! Sadly, after twenty-odd hours of gameplay, I missed the closing bit of story / cutscene because I had to carry out taxi duties :-/ Still, there’s another couple of bloggees who are currently playing through it, so I’m sure one of them will fill me in.

In the end, the final boss was more down to endurance than anything else. There was no need for fancy spells - just constant healing and constant attack with non-magical weapons - and he’s own0red.

And the beauty of the things is, Final Fantasy II is also on the cart! Hooray! Final gametime was about 25 hours - completed with 999,999 Gil, all chars with 999 health. Anyhoo, there’s four or five places I know I haven’t fully explored yet, so I think I’m going to have a dig around. It’ll mean killing that pest of a boss again, but never mind

‘Tis ended! Mecha-Ridley is a rusty bag of nuts and bolts. The expected Predator moment (Get to da Choppa!) happened and I had a short amount of time to leg it. The lack of access to a save point worried me a little, but as it happens I escaped with over a minute left on the clock.

The end result wasn’t a great efffort, I have to say, with completion taking 7 hours, 23 minutes and 33 seconds and an abysmal item score of 54%. Pretty poor, really, given that I scored 98% on Prime. So, my head is hung in shame.

So - an ACE little game which I didn’t do justice to. Somehow, I think I’ll be revisiting this one to do something about that item score. In the meantime, I think I’m going to spend some time with something a little less nerve shredding - and I know just the game…..