Freezair For A Limited Time wrote:
Um, yeah. About that. So as it turns out, I didn't properly understand how savestates work on this emulator that I'm using, which means that I didn't save the game's state properly, which means that I ended up having to use that password after all in order to get back to where I was without having to redo everything! Ooops. Lucky for me I screencapped it, so I was able to enter it with no trouble and restart from my previous place. For the record, the password entry screen looks like this:
That minor muck-up averted, let's start exploring with Freeon-Leeon!
Fun fact: Despite the lack of apparent evidence, Freeon is, in fact, female. It's quite evident in Japan, where her name is "O-Chan" and she's a Cat Girl, but apparently, the game's English-language manual (which I don't have, so don't quote me on this) does in fact confirm her gender, too. From what I understand, it also portrays her as an afficionado of masquerade balls.
She can totally swim, dudes! In addition to moving at a reasonable pace in water, she can also leap from it anywhere—a feat Louie's floundering cannot replicate. However, she apparently has the lung capacity of a gnat and cannot actually dive, so that intriguing little drainhole in the water pit due right of the starting field will have to remain unplumbed for now.
High ho, high ho, it's off to the ice caves we go!
On normal land, Freeon moves somewhat more slowly than Louie, and cannot jump as high. However, she's a speed demon on the ice, skating around with reckless abandon.
Judging from her "stomp" sprite, she also takes an incredibly perverse glee in flattening small rodents. Remember what happened to Little Bunny Foo Foo, Freeon! He went around giving mice concussions, too, and the Good Fairy turned him into a goon!
Although I suppose that gets around the signup fees.
Oh ho ho! What have we here? Looks like a pair of pits. Normally, an obstacle to be jumped over, but we can't stop there—this is Metroidvania country! You and I both know I that they ain't got no bottomless down there!
Alley oop!
Just as I suspected. And even though Freeon herself would be completely clueless (Unless she, y'know, looked down), the camera confirms that my suspicions were right around the other pit, too.
This looks familiar. (Bonus: I didn't know the head-balls even had a frame with closed eyes.)
And just as I suspected, we're back here. Figures those two icy areas would be connected.
We could technically explore that watery pool now, but let's see what's in the rest of that ice cave before we do so.
Oop! Gravity works.
Intriguing. Let's head inside and see what awaits.
This doorway, instead of dropping us inside of a cave we've already been in before, transports us to a much more ancient and much more mysterious temple, filled with ancient and mysterious...
...Um, psychotic clowns.
You know, Mysterious Ancient Temple Builders, most long-lost societies are perfectly content to booby-trap their places of worship with things like poison darts and giant Styrofoam boulders. I understand the concept, but I just don't think coulrophobia is as pervasive as you think it is.
MOAR TREASURE
Centuries-old blue liquid that has somehow managed to avoid evaporation! The pause that refreshes!
The ancients had many advances in technology that have been lost to us in the modern day, including the ability to turn text boxes red.
To the menu screen!
In all seriousness, medicine is awesome and the game is much better for it. It's essentially a free top-up, and they endlessly respawn whenever you either start the game or continue after dying. This game takes its sweet time in coughing up Heart Containers, so this one, easy-to-reach medicine is all we'll need for a long time coming.
A mysterious gate sits amidst the mysterious ruins!
And a mysterious, disembodied text box mysteriously interrupts Freeon in the middle of a mysterious head-smash to assault her with a mysterious hint! Mysteeeerious!
Although as far as riddles go, it's about as subtle as "If the answer to this question is 'cake,' what is the answer?" We may not have seen any keys yet, but this door says "FINAL BOSS LIVES HERE" like nobody's business.
Deciding to forego therapy, Freeon-Leon develops a more visceral way of dealing with her childhood birthday party trauma.
As far as temples go, this place is pretty short. What lies this way?
Subterranian ice cave -> mystic temple -> insurpassably steep precipice? Sure, Why Not??
Woooooo—
—oooooaaaa—
—-aaaaah! So that's what was up there. Unfortunately, there's no going back up the Land of the Lips for now, so we're hoofin' it the long way to investigate the final portion of the ice cave.
Aside from a few enemies, though, there's not much to see until the exit...
...wherein the platforming suddenly gets much trickier.
And when the footholds are so thin, those little waddlers suddenly become total bastards.
An exit, directly across from the way we came in? Seems a bit too good to be true.
And it is. Louie's big, fat, surprisingly agile body can't make that jump. If that treasure chest were a Mimic, it would be blowing raspberries at us right now. Back the way we came, then.
Attention Whore Arrow clearly wants us to go this way, but we still have one area from the first part of the game left to explore: That pond across the way from the lower exit to the ice cave. Back the way we came then. (Harder than it sounds—it's tricky to stay on those small platforms, and Louie constantly bops the wrong thing as his head collides with the airborn dirt and stops hard.)
Water presents a new hazard to us, in the form of tubby ducks.
Game, you are such a healthtease. (Not that I need it, but it's the principle of the thing.)
More ropes and more dopes. I wonder if there'll be another doorway to a temple at the end of this—-
Well crap.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Boss #1: Lolwut Larry. Making the "ಠ_ಠ" face fifteen years before it was cool. He's an emoticon hipster.
This boss' attack pattern can be best summed up as: What attack pattern? He paces the room like an expectant father, but makes no real move to do anything against you. He may not assault you, but he's got an acid touch, so he deserves to go down. Stompings are not enough with this guy. Jumping on his head once will cause him to release a ball (he's got a surplus of skulls, perhaps?), which you must then catch and throw at him to damage him. He does get faster with each hit, though.
He's bizarrely giddy about taking damage, too. Kinky. Also, I just felt like showing off this screenshot, since he and I hurt each other simultaneously and it looks funny.
Still, five hits and he vanishes in a puff of smoke. Cue victory fanfare!
Treasure 3: Revenge of the Chest!
STAR GET! Does this mean I'll be invincible now? :D
Not quite, but that's still awfully helpful! Sweet! Now Bop-Louie has a new attack! Let's try it out!
Let's switch over, while we note that the star went chameleon on us and turned green while we weren't looking. (So... That means we completed a special challenge, then?)
Scraaaaah! (Also: MAN that is a weird expression on Louie's face.)
We now have a heart, hovering around us like a guy at a bar who's too shy to ask us something. Let's go find a sucker to try it out on!
...Um.
What.
This water that I'm drinking... it's clean, right? No unsavory pharmeceuticals? Was that bagel I ate tainted with ergot? Or did that Star "Secret Weapon" just cause Bop-Louie to sever his own head and swing it on a chain as a means of attack?
You know what? I'm done fort the night. I don't know what I could possibly say that could make this any better (or worse) than it already is.
Next time on Let's Play Ufouria: We cart ourselves off to dig a little deeper into the world, but get the shaft. See you then!
- Characters updated!
- Enemies updated!
- Bosses updated!
Comments
and check out "Hebereke's Popoitto" (a puzzle game that looks like it was either SNES or arcade-based), you can see what her original version looked like.
