The 'Shroom:Issue 210/Strategy Wing
Director's Notes
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Well hello there, all you readers of The 'Shroom! The nights have been long here in the Strategy Wing offices, and not on account on the turn of the season! I've been burning the midnight oil trying to rein in this ballooning budget... You see, recently, Shoey graduated from this prestigious military academy, Ishchka, I believe, and now he's putting the expenses of an entire army on the Strategy Wing business expense! He's the Director. Surely these expenses need not pass through Strategy Wing's budget, no? Oh, I simply must resolve this before I have to submit this additional expenses form to Meta Knight... Ah, well, I suppose I'll just have to read about this army's first outing in Another Ogre Battle Section and hope Shoey begins collecting tribute soon.
At least Waluigi Time is continuing to rake in Shine Sprites. Those things sell for a fortune, you know. Ten Blue Coins a pop, I'm getting for them at current market rates. Although... I fear the easily-obtained supply may be dwindling. I understand he's venturing to some far-flung secret courses in Shine Get this month just to find more. Well, even if the Shine Sprite revenue falters, Sparks and MightyMario continue to acquire all these new, valuable weapons and items. I'm sure there will be some finds in this month's An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 2 that fetch a good price on the market.
In non-budget-related news, I'm happy to say that Four Steps for a 3D World is back this month! It's even finally covering a level from a game that Hayashida had nothing to do with, so if you've been waiting for that, be sure to give it a look. Additionally, we have a brand-new one-off section this month that's a little bit like Four Steps in that it takes a Mario level and examines it from a fairly particular perspective. I don't want you to have to read the explanation of the premise twice, though, so just keep an eye out for Setting the Stage if you want more Mario content this month.
Now, before we get into Section of the Month and you get to reading, I'll remind you that it's easy to sign up and become a part of the Strategy Wing team! Cover a popular game or cover an obscure one! Walk us through a game or analyze it through a focused lens! Make it short if you want (Shine Get is a great example to look at)! Tell us tricks and tips or give us some extra challenges. Trust me, we always have room in the budget for new writers.
Section of the Month
Oho, it seems Huntail smashed its way to the top with Shell Smash! I've always thought the Clamperl line to be a bit overlooked, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to highlight Huntail last month. Thank you for voting Pitohui's Pokémon Academy the section of the month, and may you enjoy this month's look at Clamperl's other evolution. My thanks go out to all of you who showed your support to our resident Robot Master battler, Sparks (with MegaMario), and our resident generalissimo, Shoey, as they embarked on new quests in sequels to their previous sections. There will be plenty of robo-platforming and marching to battle to come, so keep reading, keep voting, and maybe toss a Poochy's Pick at a writer who gives you some joy this month!
| STRATEGY WING SECTION OF THE MONTH | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Section | Votes | % | Writer |
| 1st | Pitohui's Pokemon Academy | 5 | 33.33% | Hooded Pitohui (talk) |
| 2nd | An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 2 | 4 | 26.67% | Sparks (talk) and MightyMario (talk) |
| 2nd | Another Ogre Battle Section | 4 | 26.67 | Shoey (talk) |
Another Ogre Battle Section
Hello and welcome back to Another Ogre Battle Section, the hopefully upgraded and more interesting version of An Ogre Battle Section. Last month, we looked at a few basics of Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. This month, we actually start playing the game! But first! A correction. Last month, while talking about liberating and capturing territories, I said that the towns provided tribute and that it cost money to raise an army. Well, that's not true. You see, I was thinking of the SNES Ogre Battle game, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, where that is a mechanic. But in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, they decided to simplify things. Towns no longer pay direct tribute. They still do pay out a reward in a way, but we'll cover that at the end of the section. In addition, it no longer costs money to deploy units, but there is a maximum number of units you can deploy! So, with that correction out of the way, it's time to start Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber! The game starts with a cutscene of you, Magnus Gallant, son of the disgraced war hero Ankiseth Gallant, bidding farewell to Prince Yumil Dulmare as you're off to join the Ischka Military Academy so that you can fight in the Palatinus army.
Graduation and Initiation
After that, the game skips six years to your graduation, where Archbishop Odiron leads you in an oath to Mother Berthe. He first asks you your name, which seems a little fucked up considering we've been here long enough to graduate! Come on, Archbishop, pay attention to your students! We're going to go ahead and keep the default name Magnus. He then asks you for your birthday, which is actually somewhat important, because if you play the game on your birthday, you get a birthday party! After this, he starts asking you the real questions!
Naturally, since we are an edgy teenager with a tragic backstory, we're going to select hatred! Accepting our answer and for some reason not sending us to the guidance counselor for answering hatred, the Archbishop asks the next question.
Now, you might think, since we're so edgy and tragic and not like other teens, we'd pick to sever hope. But actually, we're afraid of anarchy and hold a strong belief that a central government is the only way to prevent chaos, so we're going to plunge our sword against anarchy. Liking this answer a lot better, the Archbishop asks the next question!
Now according to the dictionary, "beseech" means "ask (someone) urgently and fervently to do something", so we're going to beseech the gods for some triumph, because I'd rather be a winner than a loser! The Archbishop is apparently really into gods, 'cause the next question concerns them.
Some of these options don't really make sense. Like, what does "lust" mean in this context? Am I expected to fuck the gods? This is a Nintendo 64 game, not a Greek tragedy! Instead, I'll simply offer the gods the corpses of our enemies, so we'll go with glory. Slightly disturbed over our desires to cut through enemy after enemy, the Archbishop moves past it and asks his next question.
There are a lot of good options here. I mean, peace is a classic, can't go wrong with ending war and all. Serenity is pretty cool from a personal standpoint, but I'm not sure how useful it would be for a solider. Reform would be nice to smooth out the rough edges of the monarchy and grant more rights to the lower class. So naturally I picked wealth, 'cause we gotta make that cash money, yo. Next, we're asked a very odd question.
Some of these feel like traps. First of all, "law" and "rule" feel like the same thing. Also, I'm pretty sure if you told somebody during your initiation to the military that you wanted to get rid of law or honor that they wouldn't let you join. Smelling a rat and thinking this is just a trick to drum dumb soldiers out of the military, we choose chaos.
Finally, you're asked "Lastly, for whose help dost thou call upon?". Now, this is the only question that really matters! The others are a mixture of flavor questions and questions which determine the composition of the bonus units you get to start the game (we'll get into that in a second). This question determines what Elem Pedra you start out with. An Elem Pedra is a special elemental attack, and we'll get into that later.
This is the odd question out because you don't get any stats for these spells, but Swift Wind is the best one to pick because Magnus is a sword wielder and the Wind Element has the strongest sword. After finishing this exam, the Archbishop bestows upon you gifts. These gifts are given to you based on how you answer the questions, because they correlate to the units you'll start with. I received:
- Bastard Sword
- Rapier
- Leather Whip
- Rupture Rose (a fancy whip)
- Cloth Armor
- Leather Armor
- Hard Leather
- Chain Mail
- Bone Helm
- Jin-Gasa (a hat with a spike on top)
- The Pedra of Wind.
With that, Ogre Battle 64 begins! We're treated to a fun little opening movie detailing some adventures we have as a soldier in the army before we end up at a fortress.
First Engagement
We are welcomed by General Godeslas, who welcomes us to the Southern Division of the Palatinean army. We're stationed in Alba, the most rugged region in all of Palatinus! The good general expresses shock that somebody like us, who graduated from the top military academy in the central region, would enlist to fight in the backwoods dirt region that is Alba. Questioning that maybe we think we can just fuck off down here, he tells us not to expect any special treatment, telling us that all that counts is our ability. Which, considering this is a medieval-style army, is pretty progressive! Appointing and rewarding based on merit and not bloodline is pretty modern. He then dismisses us, telling us that we're going on a training exercise! But before we can do that, his second-in-command, Ariosh (dumb name), tells us we have to get organized. He lists out all the people who were chosen as potential unit commanders and, wouldn't you know who won the pony, we're on the list! He tells us to wait in the hall and we'll be interviewed for the position.
We're led into a room where a Grey-Haired Old Man sits, calling for us. Reporting for duty, we sit down as the old man reviews our file. He tells us that his name is Hugo Miller, our advisor. After looking us over and listing the fact that we graduated from a prestigious military academy, he dismisses us, telling us to go to the training exercise. Admittedly, we're a little shocked by this, but Hugo gives us that old bullshit line about how old people are good judges of character. "Yeah, whatever, grandpa," we think to ourselves as we leave.
We head to the Tenne Plains for our first mission, "Scene 1: The Southern Reaches". We're brought to Hugo in a conference room (get used to seeing that) alongside fellow newly-assigned officer Diomedes Rangue (Dio to his friends). For some reason, Hugo expresses surprise we arrived at the same time. Like, bro, this is a military, of course we came when summoned, idiot. Hugo really pisses off Diomedes, who demands he call him Dio (told you), which seems really unprofessional. Like, my guy, that's our superior officer, what are you doing??? He orders us to head towards Theodricus Mine in the west to clear out some bandits and wild beasts! Wait, I thought this was a training mission, not a practical mission??! Hugo then brings us to the battle board to go over strategy.
He explains to us how the strongholds work, but you read the previous issue so you already know! But just as a little refresher, blue are our Strongholds, red are the enemy, and green are neutral. Now, I don't exactly know why there are strongholds here that have been conquered, because I thought we were just here to clear out bandits and wild beats. Unless, I guess, they've been taken over by bandits? The most important thing Hugo says is to not let our headquarters fall! He also tells us to exercise caution, but that sounds lame. I'm more of a student of the Civil War, with big flashy battles where a lot of people die and nothing gets accomplished.
With that, it's time to take the field of battle! Naturally, as the high-born son of a famous war hero, we're given command over these lowly peasants, whose lives we command, as is the way god wants. Dio protests the fact that we've been chosen as commander, demanding some sort of merit-based system. How childish. I'm not surprised a commoner like him can't understand how our pure blue blood makes us the correct choice for commander. I mean, could you imagine a commoner such as Dio leading the troops? It would be madness! But then Dio tells us to meet him outside and he challenges us to a duel!
Now, obviously we're not going to back down against common gutter trash, so we draw our sword, but before we can open his insides, Hugo stops us just because we're about to disobey his orders and on account of some dueling is an illogical process that can only lead to talented officers getting killed liberal nonsense. Dio accuses of Hugo of picking us as commander just because we graduated from the academy. Hugo is all like "dude, the first time you were even the slightest bit slighted, you challenged somebody to a duel," before yelling at us for accepting the duel and ordering us to take down the beasts, godsdammit!
To Glorious Combat!
So now it's time to actually play the game. Remember, Ogre Battle plays quite differently than most games. So, first we're going to press the R Button on our Wii Classic controller to bring up the dispatch menu. This is going to show us what we've got at our disposal.
So we've got:
- Anderson, a Beast Tamer
- Two fighters at the front
- Two groups of bucket-headed child soldiers at the back.
- Eric, a Fencer
- Three groups of bucket-headed conscripts at the front
- One fighter at the back
- Dio
- Three fighters in the front
- One archer in the back
- Jin, a Valkyrie
- Two bucket-headed soldiers.
- Burton, a Phalanx
- A Clay Golem as his side kick.
So, right off the bat, I hate Jin and Burton's groups. Bucket-head soldiers are the lowest of the low in this game, only serving as early promotion fodder, so having a unit that mostly consists of that is horrible. And I just hate Golems. Golems are like the Shuckle of this game. Their gimmick is that they have very high regular defense but almost no magic defense, but they also have very low HP, so, like, without much HP, that high defense is worthless. Now, we're still going to deploy them, but they're going to play rearguard. What I mean is that they're going to sit at headquarters and defend it just in case any enemy manages to slip through our lines, because if an enemy manages to touch headquarters, it's game over!
For our main units, we're going to move in two thrusts. Dio and Eric will cut through the forest to liberate the town of Mulsuk with its 50 loyalty, while us and Anderson will take the main road to liberate Bourdeux with its 71 loyalty. We're also going to click on Eric and go to Unit Commands and, from there, Formation, and we're going to move all his bucket-heads back to the back row. This is because they're so weak that they can get wiped out easily, but if they win enough fights, they can upgrade to Fighters or Archers, which are always needed.
Now, Mulsuk is currently controlled by a Wizard named Bryan, along with his Knight Chipp and Hellhound Eithacos. Dio makes contact first, AND WE GET A CUTSCENE. Bryan the wizard expresses shock that the Southern Division is here already while a Beast Master known only as "Warrior" tells him it's not a big deal because their plan has already started! He then runs off, telling Bryan to sacrifice himself for a better cause as Dio arrives!
Now it's time to talk Ogre Battle combat. Each fights basically works automatically. What I mean is, each fight lasts three turns, but each character isn't guaranteed to make three moves per fight. How many moves you make per fight is determined by your placement on the grid. For example, a fighter can attack with two sword slices in the front row, but if it's in the back row, it will only do one sword slice. Same with an archer, who will fire two volleys of arrows in the back row, but only one in the front. So a lot of this game is just based on proper unit layout to give yourself the best chance to succeed. At the end of three turns, the game will decide which unit wins based on how much damage was caused and any deaths. Now that is not to say you, the player, doesn't play any role in the fight. Pressing any button allows you to bring up a menu with three options:
- Battle Strategy.
- Retreat
- Elem Pedra.
Now, those latter two operate based on a meter that chargers throughout the battle, but your most important option is the battle strategy page. This gives you four options:
- Autonomous: The CPU just kind of make moves.
- Attack Strongest: Your units will attack the character with the most health.
- Attack Leader: Your units will attack the leader/commander of the unit.
- Attack Weakest: Your units will attack the character with the least health.
I always default to Attack Leader if the leader isn't blocked. The reason I do this is because a unit with a dead leader will just wander around aimlessly and try to flee if you approach them, so killing a leader is an easy way to render an enemy unit helpless! Attack Weakest is also good, because the game's method of determining the winner of a skirmish is heavily influenced by deaths, so killing one of the enemy characters can greatly increase your chances of winning the battle.
Back to our battle, the battle is a slaughter; Bryan barely lives though the first turn before being felled by our fighter's blade! With that great victory, we're able to liberate Mulsuk. As this happens, a Witch named Amanda with a Phoenix under her command attempts to drive out Dio, so we send Eric to cut her off. Eric engages valiantly and, luckily for us, the enemy is an idiot and has put Amanda in the back where she can just cast poison cloud. Eric scores an easy initial win, but he doesn't actually kill anyone.
Let's talk about what happens when you don't kill. Winning a fight grants you an exp boost and knocks the unit you defeat back. We click on Eric and press the R button, setting Eric's command to only pursue Amanda. I like to do it like this, because sending units after weaker units is a good way to grind your weaker units. So, a lot of times, what I'll do is send my strongest units to liberate stronghold, then I'll just use less powerful units to do mop up duty. That way, they remain at least somewhat relevant!
So as that all happens, us and Anderson liberate Bourdeux. We're going to go ahead and send Anderson to fight Bryan the wizard's remaining soldiers as Eric again engages Amanda, winning although nearly losing his little bucket hat man in the process. A knight named Presto approaches Molusk, which, by the way, it's important to note you don't get any special buffs or debuffs if you attack from a town. So we send Dio to meet him at the gate. Dio easily defeats Presto, who is sent flying right into Eric. Eric's unit easily slays Presto, who dies from a sword to the stomach while the Griffin he commands manages to escape. Shortly after this, Eric wipes out Amanda's unit completely. We head to Buchanan, which I hope isn't named after James Buchanan, worst president of the United States, and which is currently controlled by a level 3 Berserker named Fyre and a Hellhound named Erratau (all these people pick dumb names for their pets). I sent Eric after Presto's Griffin, hoping that defeating it would promote some of those bucket-head soldiers, but it didn't, and now I'm sad.
Now, our unit, as we are the commanding officer, is the most balanced unit of the early game. With two fighters at the front and two archers, we have a strong front and strong back. Now, our archers for some reason default to the middle row, which means they only fire one arrow per fight, so we're going to go into the formation menu and set them to the back row so that they fire ten arrows. This means that we're going to hit for ten attacks per fight, which means that Fyre picked a bad day to be a rebel at this mine, because he doesn't really stand a chance, although does land a super annoying critical hit to us personally, which does 20 damage. But regardless, Frye is no match for us and we force him to retreat and liberate Buchanan
But Frye isn't done yet. You see that little castle above his head? That means he's weak enough that he's looking to take a city so that he'll recover. So we're going to sit here and wait until he comes to us, then we'll get him! EXCEPT, INSTEAD, HE TRIES TO RUN TO THE MINES LIKE A COWARD! SO WE GIVE CHASE, AND DON'T WORRY, WE GET HIM! We kill Frye, but his hellhound escapes, but that's okay I guess. Anderson finally reaches Bryan, only to lose! It's probably because he has so many stupid bucket-head dudes. That means that he's probably going to get rearguard duty next mission. Since Anderson has failed, we task Dio with killing the rebels instead.
Unfortunately, our pursuit of Frye left us tired and we're forced to make camp. While we recuperate our tired feet, it's a good time to go over a few things.
One of my favorite things about this game is that you can visit the towns you liberate or capture. Most of them don't have much to say, mostly filled with filler flavor text, but let's take a look at Bourdeux.
I love how cute this is! This little girl is expressing concern for Prince Yumil's safety during his visit to Alba. On the other side of the map, the other loyalist town of Jadd, opposite of the action, has a shop in it where we can spend money on things! Right now, we're going to buy heal packs. They heal 150HP to every member of a unit. One thing that is kind of annoying is that each unit has its own set of items. There isn't, like, a master set of items you can use. Instead, you have to give items to a unit, which can be annoying as you try to remember who you gave what. But that shouldn't matter that much this month. We'll go over items and shops in more depth next month, but now we're rested and it's time to liberate the Theodricus Mine, which is currently being held by that tyrant Berserker rebel leader Stabilo and his pet Wyrm Uranus.
Uranus being on the left side is really good for us, because all our fighters can hit Stabilo! Apparently Stabilo is controlling the beasts with, idk, magic or something? He says he's doing it for freedom or some other peasant folly. He then tells us to prepare for battle! But his unit is terrible! His Wyrm is to the left and he's back center, and that means he's got no cover! Boss fights like this end once you kill the leader, so we just wipe the floor with him! I mean, he barely makes it a turn and a half in before he's dead! With that, we liberate the mines and collect our spoils!
Victory and the Spoils of War
For winning a map, you are awarded Goth (money) and you get bucket-headed conscripts. This is based on a formula based on number of towns liberated and the time it takes you to complete a map. One thing that's odd is that you're always rewarded with bucket-head boys even well after bucket-head boys stop being at all useful (so, like, mission 3). We even steal - I mean, uh, confiscate, yeah, confiscate - Stabilo's axe, Francisca, which probably has better stats than a normal axe! After defeating Stabilo, we capture him and demand to know what his plans are!
BUT BEFORE HE CAN ANSWER, DIO TELLS US THAT THE PRINCE IS UNDER ATTACK, OH NO! THE LITTLE GIRL WAS RIGHT! OH GOD, IT TURNS OUT THIS WAS ALL A DIVERSION! THEY DIDN'T WANT THE STUPID MINE; THEY JUST WANTED TO DIVERT TROOPS SO THEY COULD KILL THE PRINCE, STARTING A REVOLUTION THAT WILL END THE ROYAL FAMILY. THOSE IDIOTS DON'T THEY REALIZE THEY COULD NEVER FUNCTION ON THEIR OWN? I MEAN, IMAGINE SOME SORT OF PEASANT-LED COUNTRY! I SHUTTER TO THINK OF ANYTHING MORE HORRIBLE! We decide we gotta rescue the Prince and command Dio to join. He starts asking all these questions like "where is the prince?" and "how big is the enemy?" which, you know, that's reasonable. But then Hugo shows up and is all, like, "the main regiment sucks. You, half-trained rookies, let's go rescue the prince". So that's exactly what we're going to do! Join us next month for mission number two, Prince rescue time!
Four Steps for a 3D World
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Hello, all you readers of The 'Shroom, and welcome back to Four Steps for a 3D World, a section in which we look at levels from a selection of 3D Super Mario titles through the lens of a design philosophy Koichi Hayashida discussed in an interview.
In brief, 3D Mario game levels in certain titles are designed around an introduction that lets a player learn a mechanic in a safe environment, further development that builds on what the player is learning and introduces more complicated aspects of a mechanic, a twist that adds some kind of significant wrinkle or challenge to force players to consider the mechanic from a new angle, and a conclusion which gives players one final satisfying chance to show they've mastered the mechanic. We look at 3D Mario levels and see if they conform to this model while trying to get some insight on how a good level is constructed.
It has been a little bit since we've seen one another here! I would recommend swinging by the Archives if you want to see a typical edition of this section, because we're going to tackle a different type of level and a different type of game this month. You see, someone suggested that I cover "Ride Big Boo's Merry-Go-Round" from Super Mario 64, which means that we'll be covering for the first time a level from a true sandbox 3D Mario game and a game which Hayashida had no hand in making. Will we see at all the four-step philosophy which would begin to emerge much later on in Super Mario Galaxy 2, or will this mission's design totally eschew it? Let's find out!
| Step | Notes |
|---|---|
False Introduction 
|
For someone who has never played this mission before, something strange happens at the level's start. Mario is dumped, as always, right in front of the manor, with the camera angled to highlight its main entrance. This is likely to make someone think they should enter the manor, especially since, at the very end of the previous mission a new staircase arose in the main foyer to allow access to a new floor. With that in mind, I suspect new players are going to beeline for the manor's interior and take the stairs... but... that won't get them anywhere. In fact, poking around the manor's interior can't get a player to the mission's objective unless they happen to fall down a pit in a certain room. This is an odd bit of design, arguably misleading the player. Though, I suppose misdirection does fit with ghost houses in Mario games, so perhaps it was intentional here. This is a sandbox game which encourages scouring every bit of the level anyway, but, still, that's odd to direct players away from the objective. |
Descent 
|
If a player doesn't fall into the pit that takes them to the basement, they probably realize eventually the mansion will not take them where they need to go and end up returning to the mansion grounds. Finding no way forward elsewhere, it's likely they wander into the shed structure outside the front door, where they will find a Mr. I and a steel mesh platform that will take them into the basement if they stand on it. From there, the basement mostly consists of partially-flooded hallways. There's not much to this section beyond the thrill of discovering a new portion of the level, but there is a nice bit of sound design where, as you approach the titular merry-go-round, you can hear muffled cheery music playing, incentivizing players to find its source. That music is maybe the only notable part of an otherwise linear descent. |
Twist (?) 
|
Finally the player arrives at the merry-go-round, finding that the floor is spinning, Boos are popping out of portraits, and there's one Boo portrait spitting fire. At this point, the player has to defeat the Boos, with the game incentivizing this with Blue Coins. What's unusual here is that... this is almost our usual Development, or even Twist step? Yet, it only works as such if you consider the levels and missions that came before it. There was an Introduction to battling and defeating Boos in the safety of Peach's Castle's courtyard, then an entire Development mission leading players through defeating them in slightly more dangerous and cramped environments. Adding a spinning floor and flamethrower would be a reasonable Twist step, at that point. Of course, if we isolate ourselves to just this mission, it doesn't really fit any of our four steps. |
Boss 
|
Once all the little Boos are defeated, the Big Boo comes out for a battle. After hitting it three times, a star pops out and can be collected right in the merry-go-round room, which doesn't warrant its own separate step label in my opinion. |
Well, we did end up with four boxes, but these are a far cry from our four steps, aren't they? Yes, it's clear that, at least here, we can't apply Hayashida's four steps to an individual Super Mario 64 mission. That makes sense, honestly. Not only is it a much older game, meaning Nintendo may not have had a refined Mario level design philosophy (especially a 3D one, considering this was the first 3D Mario platformer), but the game's sandbox nature means it isn't guiding players through a linear mission. 3D World says "follow this path and learn" while Super Mario 64 says "go, wander, and figure it out". I do think you see a few good level design bits here, like using sound design to guide players in the basement, and I'm inclined to believe luring you into the mansion is an intentional trick given how ghost houses usually try to trick players, so I can't say this is a poorly-designed level.
Most interesting of all, though, has to be how you can see the rough outline of our four steps if you zoom out from the mission itself and include the previous mission and the means of accessing the level. As discussed, that looks a lot like our typical four step process, or at least three-quarters of it! I suppose that goes to show that these four steps are a natural way of easing players in as they discover new mechanics while ultimately delivering them a challenge once they have some experience. I wonder if the developers ever delineated that progression of learning to fight Boos in the safety of the courtyard to fighting them in cramped rooms to fighting them in a moving space, or if it just sort of popped into being serendipitously as they designed the level entry method and a few missions.
Well, we may never know, but it's interesting nonetheless. If you'd like to see a different approach to scrutinizing Super Mario level design, check out this month's one-off, Setting the Stage. For now, with over four Boos needing to be beaten, three hits needed to take down the Big Boo, two Stars obtained in Big Boo's Haunt, and one cool musical track, this has been Four Steps for a 3D World!
Pitohui's Pokémon Academy
Written by: Hooded Pitohui (talk)
Welcome back, class. I trust you're not feeling too poorly, what with the adjustment to the changing seasons and all, hm? Well, heavens-no-why, but I'm given to understand some of you lament the end of summer and its accursed heat. I have no such love lost for the dreadful season, but I understand your plight from my own experiences on the cusp of spring. So! So that you might fully immerse yourself in the waning summer, we will continue to focus on a Pokémon hailing from tropical regions this month. Yes, this month, let's discuss a method of raising Clamperl's alternative evolution, the graceful-but-deadly Gorebyss!
As always, for those of you just joining us, you can find our course policies and aims in the first box below and a refresher on frequently-used terms in the second box. By all means, skip them if you're already familiar, especially you poor mobile users (surely there will be a way to collapse boxes on mobile someday)!
First, a Smogon University course, this course is not. No, this academy's lessons are designed to get trainers of any stripe thinking about how they can raise their Pokémon, and, as a result, aren't designed to keep up with the widely-accepted metagame for the series. In some cases, the way I've raised my Pokémon may even flies in the face of conventional wisdom. If you're looking for top-tier strategies, do check out Smogon, but if you merely want to get a little deeper into raising Pokémon while still doing things your own way, feel free to use this section as a reference.
Since we all know the importance of citing our sources, I also need to credit the design of some of the tables used in these lectures to Crocodile Dippy, author of the Pocket Handbook which can be found in early editions of Strategy Wing.Base Stats: Base stats are the values associated with a particular Pokémon species, and are the same across every individual Pokémon of a given species. You have no influence on them. You can think of them as traits tied to a species. A chimp isn't ever going to be able to get as good as digging as a mole will be, and, likewise, an Abra is never going to have the defensive prowess a Shuckle has.
Individual Values (IVs): Individual values, as their name implies, are associated with individual Pokémon. They range from 0 to 31 in each stat, with 31 being considered a "perfect" IV and higher numbers corresponding to different stats. Magikarp A and Magikarp B will have the same base stats, but they may very well have different IVs. To stick with the animal analogy, one mole may be born with larger claws than another mole, and that first mole is probably going to have an easier time digging through dirt than the latter. Individual values are set in stone, strictly speaking, but you can use Hyper Training (from Generation VII onwards) to functionally get a perfect IV in a stat.
Effort Values (EVs): Effort values are the one thing you can easily change. A Pokémon can earn, primarily through battling, but also through means like the use of certain items or mechanics like Super Training, up to a total of 510 effort values, with up to 252 in any given stat. To finish off the animal analogy, no matter what kind of claws a mole is born with, moles who have more experience digging are probably going to be better at digging than moles which have never dug.
Nature: A Pokémon's nature is, more or a less, a stat modifier with a name meant to make it sound like a Pokémon has some personality. Natures will raise one stat by ten percent and lower another stat by ten percent. Some natures raise and lower the same stat, canceling out the effect and leaving stats unchanged. Natures can be functionally changed with the use of special mint items from Generation VIII onwards.
STAB: STAB stands for Same-Type Attack Bonus, and refers to the boosted power of moves that match the type of the move's user. To illustrate this, consider the case of a Lombre, a dual-type Pokémon which is both a Water-type and a Grass-type. Any Water-type moves Lombre uses will have their power boosted by 1.5x, and any Grass-type moves Lombre uses will, likewise, have their power boosted by 1.5x. (There are circumstances where this does not apply, and, while the 1.5x multiplier is typical, some games use other multipliers.)
Jumping right into an examination of Gorebyss's base stats, we find that Gorebyss has an unusual distribution. Not unlike Huntail, Gorebyss isn't skewed towards offense or towards defense, but instead has one strong offensive stat, one strong defensive stats, and then middling-to-poor stats across the board. Both Huntail and Gorebyss have high physical defense, but where Huntail pairs that with high physical attack, Gorebyss gets a high special attack stat. We're stuck with rather poor speed again, and, like Huntail, we don't have Trick Room as an option to overcome that. We do have Swift Swim, which may be usable if we put Gorebyss on a rain team, but we have an option for boosting Gorebyss' speed and helping it to hit as hard as possible independently of the rain.
Yes, once again, we turn to Shell Smash and make it the basis of our strategy for raising Gorebyss. Shell Smash, for those of you who were absent during our previous session together, raises a Pokémon's attack, special attack, and speed by two stages while dropping its defense and special defense by one stage each. For Gorebyss, we'll use Shell Smash to both reinforce Gorebyss' already-considerable special attack and to shore up its poor speed, ideally making it capable of outspeeding its foes and hitting them hard enough to knock them out, making the defensive drops a non-factor.
To get the most from Shell Smash, we'll want to maximally invest in speed and special attack, ensuring both stats have a 31 IV and 252 EVs. Ideally, we have 31 IVs in both defensive stats and HP, as well. We may be intentionally lowering those defenses, but we can't disregard them entirely. Before Gorebyss gets any Shell Smashes off, it will more than likely need to take a hit, so I suggest putting the leftover 6 EVs into defense, shoring up Gorebyss' naturally high defense just a bit. On the other hand, we can disregard attack entirely, so not only can we disregard its EVs and IV, but we can also choose an attack-lowering Nature. I recommend Timid, which will also raise Gorebyss' speed, but Modest (boosts special attack) is a reasonable choice, too. The way I see it, though, all that power means little if Gorebyss can't move first, especially after those defense drops, so it's best to prioritize a higher speed stat!
|
Name: | Gorebyss | Base HP: | 55 | |
| Category: | South Sea | Base Attack: | 84 | ||
| Type: | Water | Base Defense: | 105 | ||
| Abilities: | Swift Swim | Base Special Attack: | 114 | ||
| Hydration | Base Special Defense: | 75 | |||
|
Base Speed: | 52 | |||
With stats all worked out, before we proceed to working out a moveset for Gorebyss, we need to select an ability. Our options here are fairly similar to Huntail's options. We have Hydration, an ability that cures status conditions if it's raining, and Swift Swim, an ability which boosts speed if it's raining. With Huntail, we said that the status condition-related ability was the best choice, but Huntail's Water Veil prevented a burn in all circumstances while Gorebyss' Hydration only activates if it's raining. That changes the calculus here, putting Hydration and Swift Swim on more equal footing. After all, you have to use Gorebyss on a rain team to get reliable use out of either of them!
With the rain consideration, Swift Swim becomes the superior choice. If you're going to need the rain anyway, you may as well further bolster Gorebyss' strengths. Take that speed boost and let Gorebyss tear through its foes before they can set any status conditions on it, perhaps with a rain-boosted STAB Water-type move.
(You'll notice a different screenshot this month. Owing to Gorebyss being available only in Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, I didn't have an opportunity to get a proper stats shot this month. I've subbed in a screenshot from the Pokémon Showdown online tool. Thanks go to Zarel and the others behind it!)
| Level: 50 | HP IV | 31 | HP EVs: | 0 | HP: | 130 | ||
|
Attack IV | 16 | Attack EVs: | 0 | Attack: | 87 | ||
| Defense IV | 31 | Defense EVs: | 6 | Defense: | 126 | |||
| Special Attack IV | 31 | Special Attack EVs: | 252 | Special Attack: | 166 | |||
| Special Defense IV | 31 | Special Defense EVs: | 0 | Special Defense: | 95 | |||
| Nature: Timid | Speed IV | 31 | Speed EVs: | 252 | Speed: | 114 | ||
Now, with that said, let's begin crafting a moveset and look for a reliable STAB Water-type move, hm? Before even that, we can automatically slot Shell Smash in one of our four slots. From there, let's look out our options for a Water-type special move with a base power of... we'll say greater than 70, since our aim is to ensure that Gorebyss has knockout power. We have a choice of either Scald, Surf, or Hydro Pump. Hydro Pump is a decent choice, with a 110 base power, but it does come at the expense of 80% accuracy. You might be willing to tolerate a one-in-five chance of missing in exchange for that extra knockout power, but I'm not inclined to take that risk, myself. Surf is a very good choice, offering a base power (90) still high enough to get the KO with no tradeoff in accuracy. Myself, though, I've elected to go with Scald, taking an 80 base power in exchange for a high likelihood of burning the opponent. That base power is still good enough to get a KO, especially if it gets a rain boost, but, should it not, the burn will drop the opponent's physical attack, giving Gorebyss a slim chance of hanging on even through the defensive drops of Shell Smash. If those slim odds don't work out, then at least whatever Pokémon comes out after Gorebyss will be facing an opponent hobbled by a burn. I like Scald here because it lets me hedge my bets, but any of these three moves will work as a STAB move choice.
| Scald | 
|
The user shoots boiling hot water at its target. This may also leave the target with a burn. |
| Shell Smash | 
|
The user breaks its shell, which lowers its Defense and Sp. Def stats but sharply boosts its Attack, Sp. Atk, and Speed stats. |
| Ice Beam |
|
The target is struck with an icy-cold beam of energy. This may also leave the target frozen. |
| Psychic |
|
The target is hit by a strong telekinetic force. This may also lower the target's Sp. Def stat. |
Unlike Huntail, Gorebyss has a coverage move it can actually use effectively. Ice Beam is not only a reliably powerful special move, but gives Gorebyss a means of dealing with pesky Grass-types. I wouldn't count on the freeze chance in any way, though. Even if you do freeze an opponent, take care, as using Scald will thaw them out.
For a final move, well, Gorebyss isn't well-suited for trickery, so it's best to go with another reliable and powerful special move of a type we don't already have represented. Our choices are Hyper Beam, Shadow Ball, and Psychic, and we can eliminate Hyper Beam right away on two counts. One, Normal doesn't offer many coverage benefits (in fact, it is super effective against no types!). Two, and more crucially, it locks Gorebyss into a recharge turn, giving an opponent ample opportunity to take advantage of its lowered defenses. Really, we're choosing between Shadow Ball and Psychic, two similar moves. Psychic is super effective against two types, and so is Shadow Ball. Shadow Ball has a power of 80 with a 20% chance of lowering the target's special defense; Psychic has a base power of 90 with a 10% chance of lowering the target's special defense. Ultimately, given the goal is for Gorebyss to tear through its foes before they can hit it back, I'd value KO power over the special defense drop chance. In light of that, we will go with Psychic!
Well, I should doubt you require a psychic to tell you what we should turn our attention to next! That's correct, it's nothing! With a moveset mapped out, we have completed our work for this session. I do hope you all enjoyed this last infusion of summer. Now, given that you're now well and familiar with both of Clamperl's evolutions, your new assignment is to go and find a Clamperl in the wild holding a Deep Sea Scale or Deep Sea Tooth! Consider it a field lesson on held items. I will see you at our next session!
Shine Get
Written by: Waluigi Time (talk)
Hello there, 'Shroom readers! Welcome back to Shine Get, the only 'Shroom section where the Flash-based apocalypse now being five months behind schedule may have something to do with stealing all of the magical artifacts from a clock. Today, I'm going to be collecting the remaining four Castle Secret Stars in Super Mario 63, including one that's been available since basically the beginning of the game! Whoops! In my defense, it's been several years since I last played this game in full.
The elusive third Shine Sprite of Group A was in the elevator room with the Sling Star this whole time! Ride the elevator to the top, then jump off to the left towards the wall. You'll pass through the wall and get taken to a secret level.
Secret Course: Jolly Roger Bay
This level starts out with a big pool of water full of Cheep Cheeps. If you go all the way to the right, there's a brick wall blocking the path, so we'll have to do something about that first. The answer is a ? Switch at the bottom near the middle of the lake, but be careful because there's a whirlpool right next to it! It's very easy to get sucked into this if you're not careful. I died several times but mostly because I was trying to get a good picture of it and got pulled in by accident. Pushing the switch opens up the path which leads to the next screen.
Over here, we can surface (which is good because I was running out of air - coins don't respawn if you die!) and grab the Hover Nozzle box to the left. Now the real mission of collecting Red Coins begins. The first one is just above the Hover Nozzle and can be reached by hopping on a couple sets of spinning platforms. To the right, the second and third Red Coins are in plain sight in the next pool of water. One is floating above a seesaw platform and the other is in the water. There's another pool of water just after that with basically the same thing, a Red Coin floating above the water and another in the water. After doing some platforming over a brief land section, the sixth Red Coin is in the water again. This one can be a little harder to spot if you just skim the surface, so make sure to keep the ground on your screen. The seventh Red Coin is found in a ring of coins just to the right of that at the end of the pool, so if you found that one first, you know you went too far! Surfacing one last time, the eighth Red Coin is found inside another coin ring, framed by spinning platforms.
Unfortunately the Shine Sprite spawns around the area of the fourth/fifth Red Coins, for some reason, so there's a little bit of backtracking required. It's not too bad, but I don't know why the level is designed this way when it's so linear.
If you've been with me for a while and you have a really good memory, you may remember way back in Issue 199 (one before 200? That feels so long ago...) that there was a secret passageway in the Shifting Sand Land room. When I first found it, there was a dead end sealed by Bowser. Well, at some point that path became unsealed, probably around completing the second Bowser fight. Technically, it's accessible even earlier - the castle has a bunch of secret passages outside the apparent boundaries that allow you to sequence break, if you know where to look for them.
Anyway, the new path leads to a secret room with a bunch of passageways and doors leading to various areas of the castle. Most of these are actually a good way to find these secret passages if you haven't discovered them already, but a few are only one-way. There's also Rocket and Turbo Nozzles on the right side of the room, and for some reason, a set of four Sling Stars that give you the weird inverted star power-up thing. I don't know what the purpose of this is. Most importantly, in the upper left corner of the room, there's a passageway that looks very cave-like. This is our next secret course!
Secret Course: The Magma Maze
Yeah, this level acts like it's all tough, but it's actually not too bad. From the start, immediately head to the right and break through some boxes. Then keep going right and take the upper path, then follow this all the way to the right across some seesaws. At the end, there's an alcove with the Rocket Nozzle, which will be very important! Then, turn back around and cross over the seesaws again. Once you're back on solid ground, rocket onto the platform just up above. From here, you have two paths you can rocket up further. The one on the right leads to a higher area with a Star Coin all the way on the right side - the last one in the Castle Secret Stars category! The one on the left leads to another screen with a long pool of lava. Most of the time, you'll have to bounce off of Koopa shells to get across, which can be a little tricky, but at the end there's a Turbo Nozzle box! Otherwise, this is a dead end. Unfortunately, you can't dash over lava without getting hurt, but if you jump and rocket across on the way back, you should be okay.
Once you get back to the first screen, go all the way to the left. There's multiple pathways that will get you there, and they all basically lead to the same place. I came in at the highest point which took me to an area with the Hover Nozzle box. Maybe it's helpful if you came here before getting the other nozzles, but at this point, it's basically worthless. From here, I dropped down past some Paratroopas into a chasm (entering at midlevel will just drop you off in a lower point of the chasm) with a lake at the bottom (entering at the lowest point will get you here). There's a current that you need the Turbo Nozzle to get through, and the Shine Sprite's at the end.
This next one is pretty easy to find, and there's a good chance you'll find it accidentally. In the room with the Tall Tall Mountain and Lethal Lava Land paintings, there's also a small painting with clouds on it. Just underneath this, there's an invisible crate. Break it with a ground pound, or just slam face first into it! That works too. Once it's broken, you can drop through the floor to get to the next secret level.
Secret Course: The Cave of Empuzzlement
This is another one that claims to be a lot worse than it is! According to the level description, it'll "twist and mutilate your mind beyond sanity". We'll see about that. First, make your way down from the starting point to the lake at the bottom. Both the Rocket and Turbo Nozzles are provided right away, so grab those. The level is full of switches that will raise and lower the water levels, so the first thing to do is get it as high as possible. Most of these can be found in the tunnels to the right, but the highest one is in the "main" area in an alcove to the left. Once it's up to the maximum level, you'll be able to reach the area over to the right. There's a cannon here floating on the water, but unfortunately, it's locked at the moment.
Now here's where things really get interesting! As far to the right as you can go, there's an Invisibility Cap. There's two cages on either side of this area, so use it to pass through both and lower the water as much as possible. Then, turn back around and pass back through the second cage to get to the right area again. With the water lowered, a box blocking further progress can now be broken with a ground pound. On the other end, there's a Metal Cap. Grab that and quickly go back to the original area and break one last box, opening up a small tunnel. Turbo through here and hit the ? Switch at the end, which activates the cannon. Now it's really just a matter of repeating the first half of the mission. Get the water back up to its max height, hop in the cannon, and shoot up and to the right to reach the area with the Shine Sprite!
The last one is even easier! Just to the right of the Tick Tock Clock entrance, take the Sling Star. Yep, that's it.
Secret Course: A Galaxy of Stars
This one is thankfully a lot simpler! No mazes, puzzles, or Red Coins, just a good old Silver Star collecting mission. Also, the gravity in this level is slightly lower, so that's neat. The first Silver Star is just a little bit to the right. There's a Sling Star too, but we'll ignore that for a moment. There's a series of platforms moving horizontally, and the Silver Star is at the end of them. Just watch out for the Fly Guy. With that collected, now it's time for the Sling Star. After a bit of platforming, there's a second Sling Star, and then go ahead and stop on the floating castle-like platform before taking the third. There's two more Silver Stars to the left - one is up above in the top left corner of a waterfall, and the other one is down below after a short (but precarious!) platforming section. Getting back up is a little tricky, but thankfully there's ground below if you fall (like me...), just a little more backtracking. Then, take the third and final Sling Star to a set of rotating terrain. The last two Silver Stars are both here, one towards the top and the other towards the right side. Once you grab those, the Shine Sprite spawns in the center! Oh, and I also discovered that if you're spinning in midair when a Shine Sprite spawns, you can slightly move during the animation. Weird, isn't it?
And that covers all the Castle Secret Stars, with one exception that we'll be getting to later. I now have a total of 56 Shine Sprites and 54 Star Coins! That leaves only 8 Shine Sprites and 10 Star Coins left to find. Next time, I'll be heading to the final main course and making a big dent in those numbers. See you then!
An Overly Detailed and Funny Walkthrough of Mega Man 2
Written by: Sparks (talk) and MegaMario (talk)
Welcome back to the Mega Man 2 walkthrough! Today I'll be facing off against the four remaining Robot Masters: Air Man, Crash Man, Heat Man and Quick Man in that order! Without further ado, it's time to take on Air Man.
Air Man
High in the sky
Upon starting the stage, we are greeted with a bright blue sky and some puffy clouds covering the edges of the screen. Strangely, there are angry platforms that give off an off-putting vibe. Why do you think they're mad? Do they not like Mega Man's presence? Let's not worry about that though - onwards!
(MegaMario: One thing to note going into this stage: there are no pickups of any kind, so you have to rely on the Pipis to restore health.)
The first section of this stage is a long "corridor" if you will. Basically, just a long trek to the far right of the level, jumping over many gaps. Along the way, these giant "blocks" appear out of thin air. We can use them as platforms, but they have drills at the edges that protrude and retract at regular intervals, deflecting all projectiles. Furthermore, whenever stood upon, they release these small, slow flying enemies that home in on Mega Man. One Mega Buster can take care of them. Metal Blade works very well too!
(MegaMario: The big blocks look like goblins, and they're even called Goblins!)
We then arrive at a point where it looks like the end of the road (or sky). But never fear! A robot on a moving cloud platform arrives. He attacks by throwing lightning bolts that curve downward, but if we defeat him, we can use his platform to move on! It doesn't end there though; there's more of them ahead. We must jump between several cloud platforms to reach solid ground on the other side. One cloud platform goes behind a cloud, reducing visibility. It's difficult to defeat these enemies with the Mega Buster, so I suggest using Metal Blade due to the many directions it can travel.
After reaching solid ground, we find more of those bird enemies from Wood Man's stage. Thankfully there is no platforming here, but the clouds may cover the birds, allowing for surprise attacks! At the far right is a hidden pitfall behind a cloud, allowing us to descend to a new area. This area contains two of those "noodle" enemies from Flash Man's stage. Take this chance to recharge some Metal Blade energy! Another pitfall at the bottom left leads us to another long corridor full of platforming.
Two of those big angry blocks are found here, both right next to each other. This could be unfair if their drills overlap. You may have to take some damage here, but it's better than falling right?
In the home stretch to Air Man's room, we have more birds to deal with. Not just them however; there are also large fan enemies that blow Mega Man away! There's only three of them though, and the third one has a bug; if he pushes Mega Man offscreen and he returns, the enemy might disappear completely. This section is tough due to the combination of the two enemies, plus the platforming involved. I recommend waiting for the birds to arrive and striking them down with Metal Blade before making a jump. They hide in the clouds here too, so be extra cautious. Well timed Metal Blades can get rid of them before they even drop their eggs!
After getting through that, we have finally made it to the end! Only Air Man remains before the stage is cleared.
I can defeat Air Man!
Air Man is rather stupid to fight. He sends out packs of tornados at random location of the battlefield before sending out wind to blow them and Mega Man to the other side of the screen. The problem is, the tornados can be arranged in such a way that they're flat-out impossible to avoid! Afterwards, he will jump to the other side of the screen and repeat, albeit the tornados will go in the opposite direction this time. After three attacks, he jumps again. I have a strategy for this fight: wait for him to jump to the other side of the screen, and stand directly behind him. He will be unable to reach you and you can spam Leaf Shield (his weakness) until he's done for. Be quick however, because he will push you out of safety and into the tornados! After a few Leaf Shield attacks, he will be defeated.
Mega Man gets a new weapon afterwards: Air Shooter. This weapon allows Mega Man to fire three tornados that curve upwards, making it a great weapon to attack airborne enemies. This weapon makes Mega Man dark blue, and the letter for Air Shooter is A. But wait, there's more! Defeating