Part 14: Almost Making Melodic Progress

Hey, would anyone mind a double-update today? I hope not!



Update Fourteen: Almost Making Melodic Progress

Welcome back! Last time, on Mother, we picked up Merry and promptly got her ass dropped like a bag of rocks. Today, we're going to ignore her suggestion of going to Easter and head to Halloween instead, so let's rock.



I'll spare you all the process of popping back to Magicant to revive Merry for free; I recommend doing that for all revival purposes, as with the Onyx Hook, it's super easy to make it back there, find the right house, and then exit. It also puts you outside of Thanksgiving, which seems to be a pretty good centralized location. Anyway, from Santa Clause Station, it's $25 a ticket to head to Halloween.



I don't know anything about trains or conducting, but I can't help but think that's not the proper way to take a corner when driving a train. I can't help but imagine what the passengers are thinking.



Then again, I also wonder what they think when they have to pass by that rocket. Shouldn't someone have investigated that by now? Maybe cleaned it up, as I can't imagine that sort of thing is safe.





Other than this bridge (which we haven't seen before) and that fucked up turn, the train ride is about as exciting as watching an analog clock.



But, here we are at Halloween station. Halloween is...Well, kind of shitty. There's a lot of wasted potential here, I think, but I'll go on about that later.



For now, there's an encounter with a brand-new enemy!



Red Snakes have 150 HP and have a chance to drop Magic Coins. They're also worth a buttload of exp and are fairly rare enemies to find.



They have a nasty habit of being faster than your characters and running like their asses are on fire. If you manage to kill one, they're worth 500 exp! And I think the Easy Ring is quadrupling all exp...



Anyways, Halloween has...Fucking rocks or something scattered around everywhere around the city. At least, I think those are rocks, and I can't think of what else they'd be.









Halloween is also strangely abandoned...





There are no people around here. It's a little strange, but I suppose when you live in a town named after a holiday of spookiness, you take these kind of risks.



There are also enemies roaming the town.



Jesus Christ, look at that face! He wants my soul!

These guys are kind of fast and easy to kill. Though, the enemy guides I've been using apparently don't believe these guys exist, so I can't give you exact numbers on their HP, but it's low. They can scratch for a low bit of damage, and are fairly unextraordinary.







There is a hospital in this town, as well as a hotel. They're the only buildings with people inside of them, but the hospital blows.



Ah, so we're in downtown Halloween. We'll be heading over to the residential area, as that's where things actually happen in this town.



We have no need to visit the hospital right now, so let's just move on.







Though, thinking about it now, I'm impressed that the train station people have stuck around. I guess when you have a train backing you up, you feel a touch more ballsy about fucking with monsters.



And when that sign said the residential area was east, it was not fucking around. We're already here.



The first person we meet is a mailman, who's not very good at his job.



Why the fuck is he singing to me?





There's a good amount of NPC's around here, too.



Why, hello, movie reference. It's a bit of a dated reference, but still a good movie.





This guy here basically tells us his house sucks so hard, ghosts decide it's not worth haunting.



I didn't find any houses to enter around here, either. It's a tad odd.



And this is exactly why I find that odd. It seems like if monsters drive the entire city out of the downtown area, you'd be fucking holed up inside your house, instead of standing out in your yard, thumb lodged firmly in your ass.





Not really. Unless you can give me upgrades to the Boomerang.





I don't think I talked to the girl she's referring to, but I don't really care. The NPCs in this game really kind of suck.





Though, this way, it's interesting to see how things evolved when it came to Earthbound; some of the NPCs in Mother are kind of goofy and wacky, but Earthbound really refined those guys down. Even an idea like this town was revisited, in Threed, and it really showed that the developers figured out how to polish it up.

For me, it's hard playing this game, coming fresh off of Earthbound. A lot of things that made Earthbound so quirky and charming have their roots in this game (NPCs, weird enemies, unconventional weapons, etc). I don't think it was a system limitation and the game had a two year development cycle, so there was a lot of time to work on it, but at times, this game feels unrefined. Granted, it's a NES RPG, so that might be it, but there's some untapped potential that they tapped the hell out of in Earthbound.



But, to move on from that tangent, have a wacky NPC.



I'm sure it's you. Here. This is the key to get in. (Giggle)

I don't know why she has such supreme faith in us, but it's well-placed.





If you hadn't figured it out, these two are the owners of the Rosemary property, and I imagine they want their mansion back.



That kid doesn't have much to say, beyond asking us if we think he's the cheeriest person in Halloween. It's actually a yes/no question, but it's not really worth showing off.



Heading west from that kid leads us to this area, which is interesting.



This lady is exactly what makes it interesting.



She has me down to a "T"; when I first read her dialog, it freaked me out a little bit, as it seemed like this lady was tailor-made to talk to me.



A thousand bucks is pretty pricey, but we can afford it. And with save-states, we don't actually have to spend the cash, so let's see what she has to say if we say yes.





This second bit of dialog was just kind of strange, so I thought it was best to show it in a screenshot.



...Lady, if there are ghosts around, I'm going to bust the everloving fuck out of them.



I like how straight forward this hint lady is. I also like that she doesn't give us the exact location of the melody, but just where it is. It's a good way to do a hint system, I think.



Though, what if we turn down her offer for a hint?



That seems a little excessive, lady. Sure, I'm confident, but--



Well, I thought she was going to fight me. Instead, she just disappears into the aether, and will never reappear.



Let's just skedaddle on outta here. I can't help but think she was hoping so badly we'd need that hint and when we denied her, she was filled with so much despair, she faded from existence.



If we head straight north from the lady who gives us the key, we come to this.



The path has a couple of turns in it, but it's nothing major.





But their property is big.



And it doesn't seem ridiculous, like the Spencer Estate's grounds did. I didn't see any graveyards or dorms for scientists to live in.



Their house also seems appropriately sized, too. Maybe it was just me, but the Spencer Estate always looked too small from the outside for all the rooms and shit that were on the inside.



Anyway, let's unlock the door and go on inside.



It's really Goddamned dark in here.



I have no idea why, either. Unless it was just "Darkness is spooooky! "



This rat gives me the willies and I wish I could fight him.



Most rooms in here are set up this way and if you don't know the way, it's a bit of a guessing game as how to get through here.



The Rosemary's didn't seem very old when we talked to them. Why the fuck is their furniture wrapped up like they're in their eighties?



I'm just randomly going through doors at this point. I'm just exploring, to see if I can get a layout of this house.



...I wonder if Leo threw his boomerang at those torches if he'd get a pot roast and a new sub-weapon.



This pops up as soon as you approach this door; it's actually fairly creepy.



So, let's head through that door!



D'aww, it was a waste of time. This door sucks.



Maybe this door will be useful.



Ah, it just leads to more doors. Y'know, this place is starting to remind me of the Spencer Estate...





Thank God there's no silly-ass keys to find around here to make progress.



I head out back the way I came.



On my way to the other door, I fight my first encounter in here.



Some enemies in here are fucking brutal. Some enemies, like these two chucklefucks, are not. If you'll recall, we met these guys back in the cemetery, when Leo had just started his adventure. They haven't improved a bit, still having 21 HP and low stats.



Merry has a fucking load of PSI powers, too. At this point, I think she has Freeze Alpha, Beta, PK Beam Alpha and Beta, Hypnosis, Brainshock, Lifeup Beta and Gamma, PSI Magnet, PSI Block, and probably one or two others that I've forgotten.



When she learns a new power, it's hard going through all of her PSI powers to see which one is the new one. I'm not sure what she learned here, honestly.



Son of a bitch!







I wish there were more stuff in here, so that the mosaic effect would be interesting.



It was just another couple of ghosts.



I'm also lost right now. I kind of wish I had used my Bread at the beginning, but with the Onyx Hook, it's easy enough to snake out when I need to.





Zombies! Like, real zombies, too!



These guys have 70 HP a piece. They also laugh at my attacks, which frightens me.



They're pretty easy to kill, but they can do something quite dangerous.



Fucking Brainshock. Just like in Earthbound, this can be dangerous if it hits. Even though it hit Champ here, that's still not good.





As he promptly jams his boomerang into Merry's temple.



Leo drops the zombie and I wish I had a way to revive Merry on the spot.





I don't leave right away, though. I keep exploring, so that when I do go revive Merry, I can hopefully remember the way through and get in and out.





Ah, now this is progress. Present boxes are nice.



This is ass-useless, but eh, at least it's something.



I went through the top door and found this. Doesn't this look like a good spot that just tells you it's the right way to go?



Before we go down there, let's explore around the other rooms and revive Merry.





It just occurred to me that Champ didn't move up in the line-up after Merry bit the dust. He's being kept in the back by a ghost and I find that hilarious.



And Jesus fuck, that's just spookifying.



Now I'm not sure if those stairs are the right way to go...



Another present box! This one holds something slightly more useful than that antidote.



I think for Merry, this is a guaranteed full heal.



Heading out of there (and we did get the nightmare message again), let's hit that bottom door.



Just an antidote inside of this room, so let's skedaddle.





Thankfully, there's a hospital in Halloween, and I'm willing to pay the doctor's fee.





Not only is Merry dead...



But the game kicks me in the nads again.





Oh, what the fuck is this.



Well, it's not as bad as it first looked. At least the doctor is here.



Whatever, revive the girl with the hat!



but perhaps I'm mistaken...

You son of a whore!



That's right; the hospital here is nearly fucking useless. Sure, if someone has a status effect you can't get rid of, then sure, it's not so bad. But if someone is dead?

Fuck you, go back to another town or Magicant to revive them! Some of the enemies in the mansion are brutal, too, so that's just another middle finger from the developers. I don't know what's up with this bullshit, but it fucking irritates me to no end.



Fuck it, we're going to the hotel. Let's rest up, then I'll go revive Merry's ass.



It's south of the hospital and the only other building in town with any signs of life.





...What in fuck is wrong with that guy behind the counter?



I hate this town.



The screen fades to black as we sleep. Leo and Champ are restored to full health.



WHY ARE YOU THANKING ME



Wait, what!?



Jesus Christ, what is this shit!?



With only 80 HP, Leo delivers a mighty to this guy and presumably pisses all over the corpse.



He gains a level, to boot.



And learns new PSI! Fuckin' A!



We're stopping here for right now. I'm so fucking angry at the hospital bullshit that I'm taking a break.

Next time, on Mother, let's snag ourselves another melody. Stay tuned!