Thursday, May 17, 2012

Paladin's Quest, Part 5: Machine Gun Punch

Previously on Paladin's Quest... the fearsome Chill forcibly kicked beloved children's clown Fastjo out of the party. It was horrible.

For previous episodes of Paladin's Quest, check out:

Whoaaa! Chill out, Chill!

Chill is just as weak as Zaran. What's with the last couple of "boss fights" being complete pushovers? It's too bad she kicked out one of my party members just to uselessly join for about five minutes before turning on everyone.

No big deal, though, as moments later we save Grunt's lady-friend.

She's moderately formidable, and a big upgrade from the last couple of "fourth man"s.

She has one spell, but it's potent.

Zaygos' troops attack en-masse as our heroes make their escape from the town, warning sirens blaring the whole way.

Returning to base, Chezni gets an overdue apology from the resistance leader.

The party loses Grunt and Wind, regaining Midia in the process. With that, it's off to... snow fields? Hard to tell. So much for having a decent fourth character, as now we're back to a three-person team again.

Who is this emo teenager?

Ah, Karon. One of the most eventful locations in Paladin's Quest.

The town is haunted by the ghosts of the past.

The best character yet joins the party here. Bean is a formidable undead fighter... with an odd name.

Our heroes meet a guy who claims to lead the Resistance here. You'd think that at this point they'd be pretty jaded and apprehensive about who they trust. Since this is an SNES RPG, it isn't like the player is offered any options. If this were Mass Effect, I'd make sure they turned around and walked right out of there.

Garana sends Chezni on a mission to get glow seeds for him so that he can destroy the spectres in the town. Chezni basically just complies without any real question. Why? And why doesn't Bean object, since he is, himself, a spectre?

The glow seeds are in a nearby tower. It's short and to-the-point, not much to say there.

Chezni delivers the glow seeds right to Garana. Sigh.

And, wouldn't you know it, not only is Garana a minion of Zaygos... he's also got Joyce, beloved feeder if the poor, held hostage.

Look at Chezni. We can only assume that he's coming to the realization that he just caused a disaster. This is why you don't task 12 year olds with saving the world, Japanese Game Makers.

So the real plan: get the spectres under control and use them as soldiers for Zaygos.

The battle is on. Garana is the toughest fight yet, and... wait, what the hell is he supposed to be?

His fiercest attack is a machine-gun punch that hits repeatedly. Aside from that, he doesn't have too much variety in his attack pattern. Still, this fight can be a bit of a wall if the player hasn't been doing any level building up to this point.

Garana is slain, but at what cost?

Joyce is mortally wounded, the legacy left by Garana.

A rare moment of speech from Midia, as one of the more likeable characters in the game meets their end.

The gravestone inscription. This game certainly does have its moments.

And that, unfortunately, is the end of this chapter of the story.

For future episodes of Paladin's Quest, check out:


  1. Was Fastjo... fast? So fast that it justified having a really stupid name?

  2. It truly was a dick move to kidnap JOYCE OUT OF NOWHERE and make her die. She's literally the only person appart from mercenaries that wasn't trying to fuck you over.

    At least we got Beans, what's really cool about this game is that they also all have their own equipment. Like Gunny is fighting by throwing rocks and pummeling ennemies with a fucking Tree trunk, Beans is using an ANGER SWORD, Dan his kicks, Fastjo a knife... Like this game truly made the mercennaries feel more alive and unique with only a few things, it's really cool.