Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Legacy of the Wizard: Part 2

Here is how everything went down: the night was becoming quiet, and I had nowhere to go. Sami, my girlfriend, was coming in to town for the weekend, and I wanted to beat Legacy of the Wizard before she arrived. So, last Thursday I started the journey for the Final Crown. Xemn's. As some of my readers might know, Xemn's area is the block puzzle area. The puzzles revolve around pushing blocks, riding blocks, fucking up block puzzles and having to restart the area, and sometimes using blocks as a weapon.



His area is extremely twisted, and can take several hours to complete. I was stuck on several puzzles, but none of them proved too challenging. Finally, I saw the crown.

But there was a problem.

I couldn't reach it. I tried all possible block combinations, but nothing worked. Frustrated, I backtracked and saw a ladder that I had missed, and climbed it. I wondered on this path for a while until I fell through the floor (a hidden hole) and appeared on the opposite side of the crown. Tricky. Using my now-perfected block-pushing skills, I got the crown and watched as I flew through time and space to battle the Golem. Luckily, I had the Dragon Shield equipped and his bullets were like drops of water on a hot summer day. With Xemn's massive strength, he didn't last long.

I looked out of the window, and watched mosquitos and cicadas swarm the streetlights. A lone dog trotted down the road, and I thought of Pochi. The glow from my alarm clock told me that it was 3:30 a.m., and as my vision swayed and slightly blurred I decided it was time to crash. But all night I dreamed of Legacy of the Wizard, within the context of the game itself. I was a block-shaped, 2-D spite, but this made sense. I was hopelessly lost in a maze, throwing axes and swords like greased lightning, unlocking doors, and generally freaking out because of how fucking bizarre this place was.



When I woke up, I had to beat the damn game. For ten years this game haunted me, and I wanted to destroy it. So I started playing as Raos, and warped around using the pictures. I managed to get the DragonSlayer with no trouble. The sword was mine. Victory was eminent. I had heard rumors that Keela was unbeatable on emulators, but I was already playing on one (for screenshotting purposes), and decided to continue (after writing down my password!). Keela descended from the painting, and I instantly died. The emulator clearly wasn't working.

So I connected my NES. It was now 8:00 and I had to leave for work in 10 minutes. I had one shot at beating Keela. Back down to the grand antechamber... once again I engaged in battle. I discovered the Dragon's pattern quickly. If I kept my distance, he wouldn't even attack. his health was down to one single bar, and I had half life. Frantically, I threw my sword, hoping to win. This was the medieval version of spray-and-pray. But I was hasty and stood too close to the Monster. He burned me to a crisp with his fire breath, and it was GAME OVER. The cold stench of defeat hung about the air. Also, it was time to go to work.

And so I worked, and it was a pleasant morning.



Lunch arrived, and I sped home to play Legacy of the Wizard. I entered my password, and embarked on my final journey. Raos looked like an alien, but he had the DragonSlayer and a determined disposition! (one must be, above all else, determined to conquer this epic game). The battle begun, swords were thrown, fire was breathed, and both sides suffered heavy damage. My final sword stuck in the Dragon's neck, and he was defeated, finally. I didn't imprison him in a crystal palace, or a painting (lolwot?), I fucking killed him. And as I walked back home, I said goodbye to Menya, Lyll, Xemn, Pochi, and Raos. The said goodbye to me as well, and waved goodbye during the final scene. The credits rolled, I had beaten the game.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's magic in them thar' sprites!

Too bad about the emulation problem. Imagine somebody who didn't have this on a cart, playing all the way through the thing just to find out they couldn't win it. Hahaha, good thing I pretty much remember how the end scroll goes.

I'm also back playing my old save of Dragon Quest 8. 148 hours in, WOW that's a long-ass time. Good times all around.

Unknown said...

Congrats on finally beating Legacy of the Wizard.

While I have the original cart (and have since 1989) and a working NES to play this on, it still stinks for those who choose to go the emulation route. Same rule applies to those who try running old DOS-based games using DOSbox. Emulation isn't, and never will be 100% perfect.

Anonymous said...

congrats! i'm not sure i have enough vim to try to tackle this game though!

Anonymous said...

Use the NesterJ emulator. It doesn't have the bug that prevents you from beating the final boss. It's the only emulator I've found that doesn't have this bug.

This game is awesome, btw. :)