Part 18: Minigames

MINIGAMES

The game is beginning to open up, and that means more events taking place in town. For this update, let's take a break from quests and combat to see what else there is to do in Rhoan.

First, it's time we played an actual game of chance.



Zeno-9 is the bizarrely named scratch card game favoured by Rhoan citizens. Though the cards are for sale in Romaioni's shop, you have to go to the castle and talk to the maid in red before you can play, which seems odd. Scratch cards are supposed to be portable disappointment for the gamester on the go!



Beneath each square is a picture of either Dorothea, Guri Guri or King Xenonbart. Matching three in a row will win you a prize. Naturally, there isn't anything you can do to affect the outcome, but at least the chances of winning aren't too terrible.

The problem arises when you try to win all the prizes on offer.



Each character has a specific prize associated with them. For example, winning with three Dorothea pictures will earn you "Lightning", a rapier metalize recipe.



However, if you win with Dorothea a second time, your reward is a mere handful of jewels. To get the real prizes, you have to scratch off the other two characters. Though I can't be bothered to calculate the odds of this, I estimate the answer as "Fucking minigames."



At this point I must offer thanks to our lords of emulation for the wonderful, wonderful gift of save states. Three games, three prizes, zero hassle. I am a cheating bastard and completely unashamed.



There are six prizes in total, though the second set has to be unlocked via Future Vision. If anyone out there has managed to obtain all of them legitimately, feel free to share your experience. In E/N. Because you are dangerously obsessive and in need of being told to get therapy.

(If you're a non-goon reading this in the LP Archive, that joke is lost on you. Don't worry, it wasn't that funny anyway.)



Once you're done drowning in tears and alcohol as your gambling addiction eats away the last pitiful shreds of your life, you may want to participate in the Judgment Link tournament.



Yes. Murdering monsters by launching them into the stratosphere is a spectator sport in this game. Rugby, American football, stop fighting over who's toughest for a minute and let me tell you about a place called Kaleila.



It's more or less the same as regular judgment linking, except the ball isn't always in your court. Instead, it's randomly bounced between you and three computer-controlled opponents.

I say "ball." It's actually a Mul. I suppose when you're a zombie blob, your career choices are limited.

You'd think it'd be simple enough to win, because you assume the scoring system was designed by someone who deserves to live. After a few games, you know better.

Here's how it should have been; a simple elimination game. You drop the ball, you're out. Last one standing wins.



Here's how it is. When the ball is dropped, regardless of who did it, the last player who hit it gets a point. The first to reach three points wins. Since the CPU has three players to control, this means it can earn points off itself.



This shot shows me one point down from everyone else, despite being the only player who hasn't made a mistake yet. In the previous round, Rex served the ball to Helen, who immediately dropped it. I didn't even get to touch the damn thing.

What was it Yoda said? "If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are, a different game you should play."

Basically, Matrix Software, you need to hire Yoda.



It gets worse. After losing four or five games through no fault of your own, you'll be getting frustrated. Chances are you'll want to quit and come back to it later.

Good news! You can do the first half of that.



There are six JL tournaments throughout the game, each unlocked through Future Visions and each with a unique prize to win. If you lose one, you are asked if you want to try again, which immediately starts a new game. You can do this as many times as you like, but if you decline, that's it. That tournament is over for good, and the prize is lost forever.

One of these prizes is needed for a sidequest.



Last and least, we have Mayor Georg's quiz.



There's not much to say about this one. You're asked ten increasingly difficult questions and win a prize if you get them all right. Some of them you'll know just by having played up until that point, or through common sense.



Others require that you've explored certain areas, found a specific item or flower, or read the additional info sections in the book. Not that it matters, because you're going to look the answers up on GameFAQs anyway.



As with Judgment Link tournaments, there are several quizzes unlocked through Future Visions, and you can try again as many times as you want. Unlike Judgment Link tournaments, you can leave and come back to them later, and whether you succeed or not is entirely in your hands.

Here's a tip. When a ball game turns out more laborious than an exam, fire someone.



georg your daughter is supposed to be the racist one, did you even read the script

As a closing note, I'd like to go back to Romaioni and Francesca's crate game.



Though I covered how this works already, I didn't mention that it's the only worthwhile way of making money. Betting starts at 100 jewels, and you can go double-or-nothing all the way up to 3200, which only takes three or four minutes.

Let's compare this to our other means of income; judgment linking.

In this video, I bounced a goblin high enough to earn a purple jewel, value 50, the most you can get from one link. It took roughly 40 seconds. 50 jewels every 40 seconds means it would take over 40 minutes to earn 3200 jewels. Ten times as long.

Really, the only reason to kill monsters for money is if you don't already have enough to gamble with. Otherwise, just play the crate game. Or alternatively, play the real game and forget about all this crap. You do not need any of these prizes or anything from the store to beat it. It's not hard.

Remember kids, minigames are a choice. Your choice.