Revier's Stuff of Dubious Value

 Hello! Today we're going back to the past, and looking at a 2008 RMXP game made by Freebird Games, wayyyyy before they made TtM. Well, actually that's not quite right, I'm playing its second installment, which was made after TtM's release, but doesn't change much besides adding a TtM credit screen and a "Retro Vacation" option.  Said option just opens this: A weird Pac Man like parody of Quintessence: The Blighted Venom, which has Vikon, of all people, star as the main protagonist. He dodges the other protagonists of that game only to be caught in a comical army of Salories, and the game ends with a bizarre ad for To the Moon.  Now, it might seem like just a silly minigame. But this minigame originally existed in Did You Remember My Lullaby, the other side story they made back when they were still working on Quintessence. There, it had a fairly different ending. Lunair woke up from her sleep, commented on how she spent two months dreaming of "this c

 Now for the very final school of the game, the cold, clammy twin of the divine/deathly pair. DEATH Death is the realm of decay, evil and, well, death. Most of its spells either summon demonic creatures, turn foes to its side by raising them as undead, or weaken them. In this manner, it acts as the exact opposite to Life - that realm was all about strengthening itself, this is about weakening the world from within. Thus, it doesn't care about regular units much, choosing to fight either with its summons, or its curses. Common Tier 1. Skeletons: Cost: 25 MP Effect: Summons a skeleton unit to the overworld. Analysis: Death lays its cards pretty early with this summon - it's literally a spearman unit, but undead! Actually, they fight better than spearmen, having more figures, defense, the whole bevy of Deathly immunities(immunity to Death, Cold and Illusions), and Missile Immunity on top of that! That said, their stats are pretty horrid, and they definitely shouldn't be used a

 So, I've been watching the 1987 adaptation of the last of the Four Great Chinese novels, Dream of the Red Chamber.  While I certainly have my fair share of thoughts on the show, this post isn't meant to share them. Instead, I'm going to talk about one of the darkest pieces of humor ever. So, in episode 1, we get introduced to Zheng's family. They are depicted as utterly wholesome and idyllic, the very picture of a perfect family, really. Complete with adorable kid: But, plot twist: the Zhengs are not really big players in the main plot. In fact, they stay on the screen for like, 15 minutes, before the plot decides to move on to some stuff about Lucun and a weepy girl and some big aristocratic family. Fast forward to episode 2, and, during Lucun handling a case, we are treated to a mention of them, and how their little daughter was kidnapped. A while later, the whole affair is revealed: not only was the daughter kidnapped, but the neighborhood went up in flames, and onl

 We now move away from the "natural" elements and into the realm of divine and deathly duality. We're first covering the more lawful/"divine" side of it, the school of Life. LIFE Life is the realm of the divine. It expresses its themes through spells that "bless" their targets and either directly make them stronger, or protect them from deathly effects, usually from the Chaos and Death realms. It also has spells to similarly "bless" cities and either make them more defensible, or improve their economy. And, to top it all off, it has a bevy of appropriately "divine" summons. But its clearest focus is on its buffs, and as such, most of this list is made up of them. Thus, it is much more dependant on regular units than other realms, and picking the right race matters far more while playing this school. Common Tier 1. Bless: Cost: 7(in combat)/35 MP Effect: Grants 5 defense and 5 resistance against Chaos and Death spells, fire/lightning

 It's time for the next magic school, and the last "elemental" one in the lineup. CHAOS Chaos represents the forces of hell. In practical terms, this means channeling fiery, destructive powers, summoning demonic creatures, and warping its own forces with demonic power. Chaos is a difficult school to play, as most of its Common tier spells are quite weak, but once it can climb out of that, it has some decent bases to work off of. However, its strengths are not particularly straightforward, relying either on combat damage, mass buffing units, or a mixture of the two. Common Tier 1. Animate Ammo: Cost: 5 MP Effect: Steals the ammunition of the targeted unit and converts it into casting skill. Heroes and summons ignore this effect. Analysis: Chaos really doesn't start out impressing with this extremely niche effect. It would be good if it affected more targets, either at once, or by type. Heroes and summons tend to be far stronger, and being able to kill their ranged dama

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 Here's the last wizard of this game, and quite an interesting one at that, too. Noel is essentially a hybrid of a cleric and an attack mage, carrying roughly equal amounts of both healing and damage spells. But that's not all; Noel can equip several pieces of fighter gear. This generally works out to his favor, as the defense they grant is usually more helpful than the intelligence on wizard gear, although the latter does have some spiffy pieces with elemental absorbs on them. Still, I had high hopes of his broader equipment selection paying off. As you can see in this screenshot, he starts off as a guest, which means he can't swap out anything until he joins "for real". This happens at the end of the Cave of Crimson Crystals. Like with Celine and Leon, I'll attempt to complete his first challenge with him in this state, and only switch to a full party if he's not up to the task. Noel starts with 800 SP and 400 BP. This is not as big as you'd think, b