Part 28: I Guess I've Gotta Do This

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Secret of Evermore, we left off about to enter the Dark Forest, the shittiest of the mazes in this game. I'm not going to say it's the shittiest maze in a game ever, since I'm sure there are plenty of others, but this maze sucks.

For those of you interested, I threw the video I took up on Youtube.



I mostly put that video up if you want to see it in action. I know the trick here, but it still takes around ten minutes to get through it.





Hey, lookit, a new spider enemy!



Well, there was. They only have 160 HP, give out 180 EXP and drop 30 Coins. They also won't bug us a bit, since we have the Insect Incense, but that doesn't mean we can't still murder the shit out of them.



Yeah, it's entirely unfair, but c'est la vie.



There are also Hedgadillos around here, if you're interested in that sort of thing.



Before I get too much further here, let me quote myself real quick-like.







So, yeah, I'm going to let you look at that. I could do an in-depth, detailed explanation of the path I took and how I made it to the hidden formula and how I made it to the exit from there, but there's one hitch in that plan.



Namely, the "fuck that noise" hitch.



I suppose, were I willing to put in the effort, I could write an update spanning poem, a short story based on getting through the Dark Forest, Supernatural fan fiction, or a tribute to my favorite musicians and actors.



I should have read that sign. It would have given me something to mention.





We are going for an alchemy formula here, by the way. It's one that I'll probably never use. You'll see why when I talk about it.



Which is going to be very, very soon. I keep thinking I have more screenshots before these things happen, but I only took 70 screenshots for this update. I usually take over 100, sometimes 150. In other LPs, I'd usually go past 200.



In other news, I sang Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love" to my wife earlier tonight. It included dancing in the parking lot at work.



It's a good thing I don't provide the choreography for music videos; I'm pretty sure anyone who saw it assumed I was having a seizure and that the woman nearby was having a fit of the hysterics.



Ugh. One Up sounds pretty nice.



It kind of sounds like it's a an auto-revive spell, which could come in handy, depending on the circumstances.



One Up costs a Feather and a Root. Feathers are also used in Fire Power (which is the only other use for them, actually). Feathers, as you may recall, are also pretty expensive.



While One Up provides a full heal to the tartget, that isn't as useful as it sounds. See, if Heal is leveled properly, it'll do the same damn thing. Heal uses Roots already, and fucking Water, which is common as shit. One Up isn't worth the materials needed to cast it. And before long, we'll have another healing formula, which heals both of our characters to full HP.



Essentially, One Up does what you can already do, at a much higher cost. Imagine you're playing a Final Fantasy game, and you need to heal up 150 HP; do you use the low-cost Cure or do you go full-hog and use Curaja?



I pick up some more Feathers, since I have more shit to light on fire.



And I could navigate my way back through the maze and to the exit, but, as before, fuck that noise. Plus, I need to show off what Wings do, so may as well kill two birds with one stone.



You get a Looney Tunes-esque fade out.



And you pop back to the beginning of the dungeon. I know, riveting.







Hey, lookit, a new enemy!



Those are the Gargons, which I guess are the dragons that have been mentioned previously. I'm not sure why they're not called dragons, but maybe a Gargon is different.



They have 300 HP, and give out 150 EXP and 60 Gold Coins. Also, that flaming fist is going to crush the Wood Mite. It looked pretty metal, so I thought I'd include it.



Fire Power is getting up there in power, and it'll be stupid powerful before too much longer. Kind of like Crush, but with more fire balls. Now, if I could just combine alchemy spells...



Okay, let's talk about the gimmick here. Some of you might have noticed it, and if you didn't, it's okay.



See that little bastard hidden in the tree?



Those fellows are you clue that you're on the right path. If you're going through the Forest, follow those guys around and you'll be good.



A league is about three miles on land. A nautical league is about 3.4 miles.



And thus concludes the educational portion of this update.



I've also seen those little bastards called "owls" in a few different guides. I'm not sure what kind of horror show owls those fucks live around.





It's like they're just sitting up there, waiting for you to get lost, watching as you travel around in circles, trying to mark your path, realizing that you keep passing your marks, no matter which way you go, and seeing as your desperation builds...



And then, just as you're contemplating eating your own hands to stave off starvation, they swoop in and begin nibbling on your flesh. They take only small bits first, enough to make you bleed, but before long, you have a parliament of them descending upon you, and the last thing you see is your ribs laid bare before you and then, mercifully, the darkness takes you.



Yeargh, that wasn't very good. I'm glad I didn't try and do that the entire update. I'm not good at that writing thing.



Yes this is a different shot and section of the forest. It may not look like it, but I assure you it is.



It's one more problem in this section. I know how varied and different forests can look. I know they only have a limited number of resources, sprites and alla that to work with, since it's the SNES, but it seems like they just kind of phoned this one in. Or they needed some padding and figured, "Hey, why not throw in a maze?"



Alright, alright, to hell with this. Let's skip to the end.



Hey, it's bright again! And lookit, a bunch of those little weirdos.

Oh, right, this is the part where I throw in the boss fight video.





Oh, what're they doing?



Shape Lifters? C'mon, you weren't even trying to be clever!



I'm going to kill the shit out of you.





I've gotta admit, I'm a bit of a sucker for the whole "fight your evil twin/clone/copy" shtick.



I'm not even sure why. I just think it's neat. And in this case, I can link to this article.



That's a lot more damage than most enemies have done lately.



With 700 HP, they have a bit of longevity, but not much. They give out 400 EXP and 333 Gold Coins.



You might have noticed there are three pairs of horror owls up there, which means we get to fight three Bad Boys.



Oh, yeah, that 18 damage in the last shot? By far, the most Zach has taken this entire trip. I tried to get him killed to fulfill a challenge from Seiren, but even without any armor equipped, nothing in the forest was doing more than a single point of damage.





The Bad Boy can use alchemy, but he didn't get much of a chance. And the one time he was going to, he had about half a second before he bit the dust.



The last one tried it. Nitro is a spell we'll get later on, and one that is stupidly powerful. On paper, it's the strongest formula in the entire game.



Zach had different ideas than Nitro going off, which is unfortunate. Sure, I'd just hit him with a fully charged sword strike and Fire Power was about to rain down on his head, but that wouldn't have killed him.



'course, Zach feels that any actions that aren't killing enemies are bad actions, so he does his best to correct them. He's a good dog.





And after the fight, we get a brand new sword!



Looks like the starting weapon in Mystic Quest.





For those of you still reading, thanks for sticking it out. I know this update wasn't great.



But I appreciate you sticking it out. It makes this feel like it's really worth it.



Well, kid, we had the advantage; we already knew all of his moves.

Except Nitro, I guess.



Anywho, we're going to take a break here.

Next time, we'll finish off the Dark Forest, fight another boss, get another new weapon, and then see where things take us from there. Until then, stay tuned!