Secret of Evermore - Self-Imposed Challenge Run Part 8: Good gameplay of the Volcano Slopes

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Master Knight DH

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Published on November 19, 2019 2:12:00 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iA2c0O12GJg

Game:

Secret of Evermore (1995)

Duration: 29:45

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3

Rules so far:
-No switching to the Dog in an active combat area unless absolutely necessary
-Dog must not be dropped to 0 HPs
-Pixie Dust, Wings, and Call Beads are not allowed
-Alchemy restrictions to be determined
-Bone Crusher banned after Thraxx
-All Sword and Spear weapon restrictions to be determined

Go to a bar with some friends and get some drinks, because there's a lot to celebrate.

I can point out that part of my interest in Secret of Evermore in the past was due to having its aesthetic tone going for being more polished than Secret of Mana--obviously, YMMV on that, though SoE goes for a boy and his dog being stuck in a strange world instead of a plot about a hero trying to save the world. I was worried about having nostalgia glasses on, but after these points, no longer is that a concern. What I'm going to talk about will showcase why, even if I still have concern that SoE could be playing too many of its cards out too early when it does still have its share of glitches.

You might have noticed when I got impressed with Private Hazard when he tore up a Tar Skull, a stationary enemy type, back in Part 4. How about when I would want to have him attack Frippos on both of the Swamp screens while I would handle Carniflowers and Widowmakers? Well, the answer lies in the enemy makeup of the path up the volcano to the guy teaching the Levitate formula, who by the way has the initial meeting dialogue being a case of The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything for if you did get a Mud Pepper from Blimp. See, the path primarily consists of a mix of Raptors and Carniflowers. When I did a practice run, I got bothered by the Raptors giving me fits because they would just keep sniping me with their lunge attacks. Then I would handle the path again, with the difference being Private Hazard actively supporting me in the combat, and whaddyaknow, I was watching him bulldoze the Raptors while I would want to watch for Carniflowers to snipe off.

Yes, Secret of Evermore actually promotes active teamwork between the human player mage and the AI partner fighter. This is the good gameplay that I was talking about.

While the switched around matchups can be overcome by the player, it isn't without effort that that is happening, but it can pay off to have the Dog outmaneuver the Carniflowers' grabs to 1HKO them, or have the Boy thwart the Raptors' lunge attacks with leading parry attacks that ruin their momentum. The basic matchups are what warrant the attention, of course, because it shows that the Boy becomes great at keeping the utility-based enemies such as Carniflowers and Widowmakers contested, while the Dog can tackle the brute force enemies such as Raptors and Frippos. Granted, these roles seem switched around for Thraxx and Salabog, but I was still having Private Hazard handle the workhorse's effort in both fights, knowing he could wall off the mooks while I went for clearing the attack objective that was the boss that was involving its own sophisticated behavior.

I've been wanting to make a Spiritual Successor of sorts to Battalion Wars, but I haven't had an idea of how to make sure AI allies could be useful without relying too much on outnumbering the human player, so as to emphasize back-to-back. This gives me a good idea.

I have a message to Wargroove, its developers known as Chucklefish, and anybody who is interested in taking notes: THIS, that the Dog has freaking tempo involvement, is how you balance the dog partner. NOT having a rebalance idea of reducing the dog unit's price in all its Unfortunate Implications of wanting players to have a We Have Reserves attitude about your freaking mascot animal species. Sure I'd feel better if the Dog in Evermore had more sense of being a Glass Cannon, so as to further punctuate ally care when you'd want less to have him overextend, but I will absolutely take a 1995 game invoking feelings of back-to-back, especially when it rewards the player being intelligent.

The Dog having inflated power stats even has the upside of reminding me about the point that the Boy is basically a Squishy Wizard, and the Alchemy system is simply blunt about that point in comparison to the gameplay I just talked about. It ends up why I suspect that the lowered cooldown on casting Alchemy spells when directly controlling the Dog, and the ability to chaincast resulting from that, may in fact be intentional, because when controlling the Dog, the Boy is on AI that can put his own absolutely vital survival in jeopardy, without even the benefit of having him stop in place at that, and thus you're basically handling an Escort Mission. The developers have shown enough signs of being Genre Savvy, and if a 1995 game is going to show care about what was practically an Unbuilt Trope long before it gets its infamous ire, then it deserves its definite share of credit.

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