Trials of Mana, Part 5 - TNT Nitromyte

Angela with a confident power-walk across the bridge. Unf. Also, an apology is necessary because Angela in general is NSFW.

The Sexy Vivis are here, and they're not going to let our heroes get by. Angela is wanted for treason and so forth.

...basically it's Baron and Cecil all over again. Remember, these games share DNA. So much so. When do we fight Kainazzo?

They send out the Kilroys, which are always bad news in this game. Normal enemy Kilroys tend to not be too bad, but miniboss Kilroys are a different story entirely and tend to hit harder than most bosses.

 Winning is a matter of dodging...a LOT. Their attacks get telegraphed by MMO-like red markers, and that means get out of the way. I'm playing on Hard mode, so these things actually pose a threat. Later you have to fight a trio of them in the snow lands and it's even rougher.

After the Kilroys blow up, our passage to Valsena is ruined. Time to take the long way around. In the SFC version it's easy to spend a lot of time lost during these early parts of the game, since you have to remember your way through all of these areas the game makes you backtrack through. Makes you appreciate games with an overworld. In any case, the remake doesn't have that problem, because it constantly gives you waypoint markers so you never need to wonder where to go. Also makes it harder to actually learn your way around when you're lead by the hand, but it's a tradeoff I'll take in this originally somewhat convoluted game.

They sure nailed the visual quality for this remake. It looks tremendous.

To get to the other side of that bridge, we need some help. We need...Bon Voyage's super deluxe cannon-travel. Now with only an 8% death rate!

Here's Von Boyage himself, whose dick of a sister informs us "isn't a real inventor" just like in the original.

In any case, he needs Nitromyte...TNT Nitromyte, exploding live from the Gund Arena in Cleveland Ohio!

This requires, you guessed it, more backtracking. The first quarter or so of this game has a ton of it. A secret passage in the caverns we went through before leads to...

...the Dwarf Village, like Secret of Mana tradition. Doesn't have the same awesome music as that Dwarf Village, alas.

Faerie...is WAY too excited about the Nitromyte. Does she have enemies we don't know about?

A dwarf blows up a tunnel for us, and the explosion knocks our heroes over. Then he just sorta goes "lol" and leaves without even checking on them. Sometimes the characterization in Seiken Densetsu 3 was bizarre, and it's odd that this remake didn't make any changes to things like this and Riesz's abandonment of Elliot earlier.

Are...are they gonna get up?

Also, neither of those hips lie.

Here's Watts, noted purveyor of TNT Nitromyte. ::paint explodes onto the screen::

I go ahead and buy it at the full 5,000 price to get a trophy on PS4, though you can of course haggle.

"Light the fuse! Nitromyte!"

Next is a fairly short underground dungeon leading to the Earth spirit, Gnome. Stuff happens, there's a boss. It isn't much to write home about, but it is a good tutorial in how the game expects you to get out of the way of the bigger attacks that the bosses do. This guy rushes from one side of the room to the other in a predictable way.

Here's Gnome. Didn't have to defeat that bastardly Fire Gigas for him this time. He doesn't have Primm around to accuse of being anyone's wife, though he does look back and forth at the women and say something about his bunk before disappearing into Kevin's knapsack.

Speaking of gnomes, now that we have both TNT Nitromyte ::paint explodes:: and Gnome, it's time to get shot out of a cannon.

No cannon travel overworld animation in this game, unfortunately. Like the SoM remake, they edited out the Mode-7 sequences from the original. In any case, arriving in Valsena, it looks like the bad guys already ransacked the place.

The Sexy Vivis have NO MERCY.

There are also Regular Vivis here. That's right, the legendary black mages of Final Fantasy are also a thing in the Seiken Densetsu series, though only the first and third games. Don't think they made it into SoM.

Wonder if Kevin's Phenomenal Fist is an AJ Styles reference. It's pretty likely, given NJPW's popularity in Japan.

After liberating the castle, our heroes talk to the Hero King and he's all "not now princess"

Our next objective: Find more Mana Stones.

After another cannon trip (luckily they set one up right outside), we end up in...

...the most important town in the game, maybe. Used to be called Byzel in the old translation. This is where you buy key items like Poto Oils, elemental saber/spell items, and birth control.

And you're gonna need it, because this is the home of the Aurora Sisters. Remember them from the original?

Throw on some Latin musica and have a ball.

Kevin: "Yeah! Yeah!"

Angela: "I want to learn how to do that!"

Riesz: "I think I'm pregnant!"

Now bathed and freshly masturbated, the team sets out for...

...a town occupied by Isabella's Nevarl troops. Riesz immediately flips out and gets ready to fight with the guards. Not sure when she became a spaz with no impulse control and Kevin became the voice of reason, but let's just move on.

Riesz's minions have been preparing in a secret base to retake their homeland.

These sleep spores have been a real thorn in their side, haven't they? More plant puns here.

A meeting is called, where they deliberate how to retake the castle. They could let non-women serve in the military, which would double their available troops. Kevin should suggest it...except everyone would laugh uncontrollably at such a wild idea. It's never been tried, and it sounds crazy, but it could work. Okay, okay, it's a ridiculous idea. I'll be quiet. Next I'll be saying everyone should be allowed to work and vote!

...so instead we could go on a wild goose chase around the world to find a mallet that turns people into tiny gnomes.

Fast forwarding a bit, after going back to Byzel and getting the Midge Mallet Beiser and getting the Minor Mallet, I'm able to infiltrate the gnome village.

This place is pretty gorgeous, and it's the only place in the game that looks like it.

Who are you to doubt El Domperi??

Our next stop is what I kinda consider the end of the "first act" of the game: Gusthall. It's the first chance we have to change classes. Gusthall itself is a bit less confusing in 3D than it was in the original version. You can actually see where you're going this time.

In the original, you had to beat the boss before you could interact with the crystal. Not the case here. Let's see what our class choices look like...

Kevin can choose to go with Monk or Brawler at this stage. Both are pretty similar, though Brawler is supposedly a bit stronger. I was initially going to go with God Hand (now Divine Fist) since I've been interested in that class since I read about this game in the 90's. Since the name is changed now, a lot of the interest is gone too. Fatal Fist is his highest-damage third-tier class, and Annihilator looks a lot cooler than Beast King, so I'm going with...

 ...Brawler. Speaking of brawls, Kevin has a bit of a resemblance to Broly from DBZ. Like the Phenomenal Fist, I don't think this is a coincidence.

Kevin is READY TO BRAWL. He was already the hardest-hitting character with his wolf form, and now it's even moreso. The only problem with Kevin is that he doesn't have much variety. Brawler and Fatal Fist don't get any special abilities or spells to use to vary things up. This group is already lacking in sabers which is its single weakness.

If you go light path with Kevin, he can learn heals, which is something to mix things up at least.

Riesz has some good choices. The dark classes have more offensive power (and show more skin) while the light classes have some really good buffs.

Since this group could use some buffs, I'm going with...

Valkyrie. Unfortunately her buffs are going to be single-target for a while, until she can switch to third-tier classes and get the group versions. It won't actually be much of a wait, since ??? Seeds ACTUALLY DROP in this version. Still don't know what the deal is with the Collection of Mana official release of SD3 but it had ridiculously bad drop rates compared to my previous fan-translated playthroughs of the SFC version.

Angela is, of course, the most popular character in this remake, and a lot of that comes down to her ultra-sexy outfits. All of her third-tier classes are completely overpowered (yes, all of them) so it really just comes down to what kind of look you want. I've got a thing for black stockings, and Rune Seer has got 'em, so...

...taking the dark path and going with Mysticist. It should be noted, however, that the Mysticist has fewer elemental options than the Sorceress. You've basically only got Dark elemental spells of any real power, while the Sorceress gets new and better versions of every other elemental spell. The good news is that the Dark element might be the most powerful in the game outside of maybe Light. For Light you'd want to aim for Grand Diviner as her third class, or play Charlotte as a Sage. For Dark, Rune Seer is your best bet.

Angela is all "tee hee" as she class-changes. My God, game.

That's it for second-tier classes for this group. So we're focusing on melee damage, buffs, and dark-elemental spells respectively.

What's missing? The aforementioned sabers, and higher-tier elemental spell attacks of the other elements. Those two things combined are a bit of a problem because we can't hit boss weaknesses reliably. Then again, this is an easy game, far more than the original, so it isn't worth stressing over the minutiae. 

Moving on, here's Sylphid. Before we can get the third elemental, we've gotta deal with...

...this scantily-clad harpy, who was previously Tzenker. This is a tough boss, even with class changes done, unless you understand how the game works and when to interrupt her attacks.

Here's the fight from my initial playthrough of this game, with Angela as the main, where I ended up having to basically kite the boss to a win.

TO BE CONTINUED.

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