Final Fantasy IV Part 43 This is the boss battle that never ends...

Ogre Battle Part 11: Time to Get Sirius.

Hanna's back in town! Just in time to face down a Doll Mage and his pet Golem. The Golem's too much for them- it's taking 1 damage a hit, and battles are won and lost by damage tallies, so I step in.

The Fortune card is another must-have Tarot card.

It makes enemies run away. Hanna needs to rack up at least one win before she has to run again. Plus we'd kinda like to keep this town if we can. But considering how hairy things are getting there, I call back Cleric Paula to this town from the more remote one I'd sent her to. This is going to be a tough fight.

Retro Gaming Roundtable #3: Superiority (And there's stuff to win!)

This week's Retro Gaming Roundtable question is "All subjective arguments and hyberbolic arguments aside, what is one thing that older video games did better than current ones do?" I'm pretty happy with my answer, though I'm not sure it passes the subjective hurdle as well as I wish it did...

Also, I am old.

Plus, there's a contest! One of the commenters on the article at LoudMouthedGamers will win a goodly-sized pile of cool Nintendo-themed items! Check it out, comment, win stuff! Most importantly: join the conversation and enjoy!

Ogre Battle Part 10: There Wolf. There Castle.

Okay, we're off to Lake Jansenia! If my memory serves me, the locals are having a problem with the young women in the area disappearing at night. And there are odd rumors about Sirius, the area's ruler. Werewolfy rumors...

Oh, this is going to be a party. You can see where FLAIL and the rebels come in on the lower left, and you can probably make out Sirius' castle on the upper right, yes?

Well, here's the shop town, next to Sirius' place. Hoo boy. My problems are going to be compounded by the fact that I intend to leave Grimm in the barracks FOR SERIOUS THIS TIME, and so we're going to try and rely on our lower-level units. In a way, letting Grimm get that high in levels is bad for everybody, because that XP could've been spread around. It's going to be a long fight...

Ogre Battle Part 9: Ah, Capella

Payday! And not a bad one at that. Enough to get us back over 100K after a bit of a Revive and Cure shopping spree when we got here...

Hanna finds our second hidden town! Wish it'd happened before payday, but oh well. And now I make what may be a mistake: I send Paula through the forest in an attempt to liberate a Temple on the other side. This is the main path that all the enemies stream up towards our base.

So that should be exciting!

Ogre Battle Part 8: Crossing The Undead

So the aftermath of yesterday's battle is that Gilbert and Canopus have joined us, and Grimm is now a vicious bastard. If I can keep his ALIgnment and CHArisma from dropping below the minimum threshold, he may become a Mage soon. Then we're cooking. Meanwhile, we're presented with a choice...

Shall we go to Lake Jansenia, or the Pogrom Forest? Let's try the forest- I think I remember how that works...

Final Fantasy IV Part 42 'Plot' is such a LARGE umbrella...