Part 3: More plans, more killing.

Update 3 - More plans, more killing.



Right now, I'm at a bit of a roadblock. Jean is a bit too strong for me to handle, so let's explore again and see if there's something I missed.





My first thought is to try to kill the Snifits from earlier. They're not trivial, but they're easily beatable now, and each drops an Ice Bomb.



With two down, I try to take on the last Snifit, but I couldn't get it to spawn this time. Go figure.



Next up, Booster Pass!





The Artichoker is a breeze at my level.



As is Lakitu. I land a Maple Syrup and even learn Super Flame thanks to the fat EXP gain from the battle.





The Apprentice, battle name Snifit Sr. still wipes the floor with me.

But as I leave, something weird happens.



OK, I can access Moleville now. Sure, why not.

The problem is in an earlier attempt, I actually left after losing to the Apprentice to see if it changed anything in Booster Tower (it didn't in the lower levels, anyway), and I did not get this pop-up. But apparently I did some other magic trigger that lets me now visit Moleville.

Alright, then!



To Moleville, I guess!





First off, we finally have a freaking inn and item shop!





Also, this mole now sells the ultimate gear for this hack using Frog Coins. The Scrooge Ring halves FP cost, while the Mega Glove and Super Jacket are the ultimate weapon/armor.

I could afford the Mega Glove at 6 FC, but I opt to wait to afford the Super Jacket, as defense is my bigger liability, and it costs 9 FC.



The NPC dialogue is exactly the same as far as I can tell, except for the cutscene with Bowser, since, well...



...Bowser's been replaced.



RATTY: Yes. Yes. We need some crazy weapons to use for glory!



SILVER: My powers have almost come to me. Don't worry. Evil will commence soon! As for now......



SILVER: You understand what it means to be a loyal minion!





This hack never stops being weird.



The entire rest of this section proceeds as it does in the original, so on to the actual mines.



Hardhat, Boomy Bob, Sparky...



Pounder...



...and Drill Bit.

Turns out I'm way overleveled for this area and I breeze through it all. I probably wouldn't have been if I knew I could unlock Moleville earlier by...hell, I'm still not sure how I unlocked Moleville!



The major change is the hack cuts out the whole chunk of gameplay where you have to find a bomb to unblock a path and then fight Croco. All that's been removed, including the rooms that all took place in, and instead the path is already unlocked.



Which means we can get ourselves a Frog Coin...



...and blast our way through the enemies with an invincibility star.



At the end is Punchinello, complete with his own boss theme.

Music: Boss - Punchinello



This theme is half of a potentially neat remix.

Unlike the original fight, there is no dialogue here.



Punchinello only summons mid-tier bom-ombs, and his main attack is Sand Storm, which actually does a whopping 5 damage to my overleveled self and inflicts Shivers to halve my attack.



That said, I'm still way overleveled for this dungeon, and as a nice bonus I don't have to finish off the bombs either.



And with that we've got Star Piece...



...Number Seven? Yeah, OK, we've got all seven Star Pieces now. Cool, OK, why not.



Instead of the mine cart, we have a large room cluttered with lizards...







...and the Wonder Stone. This is probably important considering it's mentioned in the game's bio.





The Lizaros can inflict poison and boost their Vigor, while the Chrimers hit relatively hard (high single-digit damage, so I'm still pretty overleveled) and can inflict Silence on our silent protagonist with Elegy.



Also it doesn't seem like I can progress further in here.



So I guess that's as good a place as any to call it for today!

Next time... ?????????