The Wood of Ruins – Two’s Company
No Hunter? They're missing out on a lot of treasure...
So, yesterday I got off my butt and worked on getting the CyberPad plugin for ePSXe working.
To everyone’s surprise, it did. Eventually. Turns out I needed a different video plugin that supports openGL or it just kept crashing instead of running, and an older version of ePSXe or it just wouldn’t detect the game correctly.
I’m not sure I have the plugin properly set up, as you can tell from the slightly uneven font in these pictures, but overall it looks better than the default.
Whilst this could be handy elsewhere, the Wood of Ruins doesn't have any undead to turn.
So, how did it go? Well, since Llama started as Player 1 and the character he used was a level 25 Hunter, whilst I started a new Priestess, we began with me slightly out of my depth, in the Woodcutter’s Cabin. Llama killed a few random bears so I’d gain a level or two and get access to Healing, then I started helping out by being the first person to encounter monsters and playing heal-tank whilst Llama shot at the things now not chasing him. Hunters aren’t great at short range against anything that can fly, as it seems they need distance to be able to hit anything above the ground.
With a few levels under my belt and a new weapon, I became a bit less useless.
The multiplayer 'puzzle'. This happened a lot.
So, finally with someone else to help, we went back to the multiplayer ‘puzzle’. The one in the Wood of Ruins is more luck-based than any of the others; it’s Pop Up Pirate, Foresia-edition. Happily the damage from guessing wrong isn’t anywhere near crippling, even to a low-level character.
Of course, landing properly so you can pick up the key is difficult in itself, as you don’t know when you’re going to be launched up, and you can’t simply hold the right direction as that makes you overshoot. Eventually Llama had a turn or two in the barrel and got it on his second jump. I’m not sure what the reward is, though, as Llama opened the chest and it turned out to be equippable only by him, anyway. Should probably try it again sometime, and see if it’s always something equippable by the first person to open it.
There are more secret paths in the Wood of Ruins than I expected. The treasure is actually very good.
As Llama was playing a Hunter, we spent a while hunting for secret paths. There are four pieces of treasure available on the boss map itself, from the area with the shortcut back to the beginning of the area, and they’re all usually pieces of equipment you’d normally find several areas later on in the game; Llama got a crossbow. Nothing for me, naturally.
Oh, and we got an Ambrosia. Now that multiplayer works, that kind of item is actually useful. At least until I pick up Resurrection, anyway.
Strangely scenic.
There are also a pair of treasureless areas that look… okay. Somewhat scenic, but they’re nowhere near as good as some of the later regions. They’re also somewhat out of place, as woods don’t normally end in cliff faces above ominous yellow mist. The hidden paths are horrible to try to navigate, though, as the trees are placed very close to the walkable area and tend to obscure it, no matter where you have the camera.
If only the Priest could cast Explosion...
The boss was reasonably easy; Llama had his shiny new high-damage crossbow equipped, and I could… poke it with my mace. I’m going to be more useful in later areas, as I now have both of my basic defensive buffs, and the game never stops throwing magic-using enemies at you, but Llama’s still many levels higher than I am. I know Priests aren’t supposed to output high damage, but I did find myself missing my Sorceress.
Anyway, that and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite have been where I’ve been for the past few days. Regular nuking of regions shall resume when I’ve gone home for summer and tweaked the new plugin to display at the right resolution.
…oh, yeah. CyberPad. We were using the Kaillera version, rather than the original one that just has you connect to a person via IP. The Kaillera CyberPad plugin works with ePSXe 1.6.0, will detect the game and version of said game to warn people if they’ve got a different version, and is generally fairly user-friendly. You do have to make sure you’re using the right video plugin – anything that supports OpenGL is good, apparently – and that you have the same settings, but it’s not really troublesome to get it working, in the end.
Leave a Reply