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Sea of Fate by Crimsonnn (Finally finished after 4 years)

Periphial Review# 1: Hori Battle Pad for Wii/Wii-U

Aesthetics: The controller looks and almost feels like a Gamecube Controller. Only difference I can see is that the L/R triggers are digital only.  Otherwise the controller looks and feels like a GCN controller.

Control: I feel this may be the best controller to use on Wii/Wii-U games that support the Classic Controller/Classic Pro. It definitely works well for both Mario Kart 8 and for Super Smash Bros for Wii-U. For Smash Bros I could feel the difference between this controller and the normal Classic Pro. The analog stick is definitely better and I find myself being able to do tilt attacks with ease as opposed with my Classic Pro I'd struggle with tilt attacks . The C-stick also feels smoother in execution than the normal classic pro right analogue. I would highly recommend this controller for anyone that prefers the GCN layout for Smash Bros and Mario Kart.

Buy or Don't Buy: I would say for the $24.99 price tag this is cheaper than the GCN hub and GCN controller (that is if you already don't have GCN controllers. The GCN hub is $19.99 and a new GCN controller is $29.99. So as long as you have a Wii-Remote you will be good to go.

This or the PDP Fight Pad: Besides the Hori Battle Pad there is also a Gamepad by PDP that again mimics the GCN layout however it provides a standard second analogue as opposed to the C-Stick design. I will update with a better comparison after  getting a PDP pad.

Game Review 3: Super Mario World: The Lost Adventure Episode 2

The format for these review will differ from RPG reviews. There are things more important to platformers. I will still try to keep the 35 point scale so will have everything divided into 7 categories.
Also since this is an SMW hack unless the game play differs greatly the category will be combined with level design.

Categories:
Level Design
Bosses
Music
Challenge
Presentation
Story
Re-Playability

Level Design: Well there are highs and there are lows. Some aspects added to teh hack are custom power-ups that are level specific such as the Boomerang suit. Sadly other hacks have done custom power-ups better. Not to mention you usually are given the power-ups in situations you most likely won't keep them. One thing I find a lot in this hack are things that are good on paper but has poor execution.  The Donkey Kong Country Returns Barrel Rocket levels nice in practice, but the execution here was poor. Pretty much they felt like a flappy bird level. Luckily there was only one or two levels with this gimmick. Another gimmick is several stages you can't pause your game in. Most likely so you can't start/select out a Yoshi, but still could have been circumvented by having no Yoshi blocks at a start of a level you didn't want the Dino. Also most levels are pretty flat and outside of the backgrounds being different there's not much variety. early on. Really not too many puzzle based elements in the game. That and some levels should have used multiple check points as they go on and on and on. The game play is pretty much overall the same as SMW although it seemed the spin jump had less height early on. I may have to go back and double check to be sure. 
Most of the levels though are pretty nice and have the right amount execution.
 Rating: 4.25/5

Bosses: Well the first boss is Dark Bowser in Hell which is a great way to start the game out. Bosses are taken from all over the Mario World with Wart making an appearance. Undine even appears from Tales of Phantasia however that particular battle is a luck based battle where you have to pray to the RNG gods that she'll hit her wave to give you a block. Then there's the Giant Beetle which again relies heavily on RNG of having blocks to hit him with. Clawgrip pretty much plays like Mario 2. Bowser Jr is pretty much the same as the New Super Mario Bros fights. The variety in bosses overall gives you a taste of all of the Mario Verse.

Bosses: 4.5/5 Some of the RNG based bosses is all I will say.

Music: We get Sonic Music, Mega Man Music, Final Fantasy music. The music seems to always fit the stages. They create harmony with the gameplay. The hacker did a great job selecting music. I honestly don't recognize some the music but it all is so good.
Rating: 5/5

Challenge: This is a pretty funny game you sometimes reach a difficulty spike where you die in a level over and over, but then you go about 10 levels with no problem. Overall the game does not follow a linear path for difficulty. Although some of the difficulty spikes come from poor execution. I would say this hack for the most part is playable with no save states, although there are points they can be your friends such as the long levels that lack check points.  But it really is pretty much doable.
Rating 3.5/5

Presentation: The game makes great use of multiple palettes. It also uses some custom enemies such as bullet brothers and Ice Bros. Snow levels have Koopa Troopas throw snowballs instead of shells. Some nice aesthetics such as the shadow pallets borrowed from DKC: Returns.Backgrounds borrowed from various gaming series. It all fits nicely and looks nicely. There are occassional graphics glitches but they are very minor.
4.75/5

Story: Well the game continues from The Lost Adventure where at the end Mario ends up in Hell. Mario makes his way back to the real world to find that Bowser JR is starting to wreak havoc across the Mushroom Kingdom. He sets out to save the day.
4/5 Hey it's pretty ambitious trying to have a story span 3 hacks (I don't believe episode 3 has been released yet). So I think I'm feeling generous
Rating 4.5/5

Re-Playability: Typically Super Mario Hacks you will finish and not play again. There are a few exceptions such as Brutal Mario and Super Demo World and Even The Second Reality Project that bring you back for more. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be playing through Lost Adventure 2 again any time soon. The game is just too punishing at times and a lot of it is artificial difficulty that is from bad execution.The good parts of the hack I'd love to play over and over, the bad parts I wish they'd include the cloud item from Mario 3 as an option.
Rating 3.5/5

Overall: 30/35 for those on the percentile kick 85.71%
I would recommend this hack for a play through. It has some great levels and for the most part is fun. For sanity at times you may want to use save states to save some repetition it's entirely possible without them. But you just may want to save your sanity.

Will update review if any opinions change after finishing the last 4 levels. Also just an Easter egg there is at least one yellow level with 2 exits. If I find more yellow levels have more than one exit I may adjust the level design score.

Video Game Review 2: Equestriabound: This Game Stinks

Character Overview:
Dinky: Daughter of Derpy Hooves and the main character of the game she replaces Ness and is pretty much exactly the same as Ness. Really just there to be fan service for Derpy Fans.

Sweetie Bell: Rarity's Little sister and a member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. For this game she is the replacement for Paula. Plays just like Paula. Pray was changed to Sing since Sweetie Bell wanted to sing. She's your magic user for most of the game with PK Freeze and Fire being your bread and butter early on.

Apple Bloom: Apple Bloom replaces Jeff and also just to mention if you die in the section where Apple Bloom is alone Jeff's sprite is in the death scene. She pretty much will be using bottle rockets and items most of the game. She receives some pretty good items that do loads of damage and are reusable. Repairs broken items found just like Jeff.  Can not use PSI/Magic

Scootaloo: Hey if it isn't Poo, well his replacement anyway she's the final member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She has low PP growth but some of the best PSI in the game. She gets the all powerful SonicRainboom. She also has some of the better support spells. Much like Poo she doesn't equip much. Does get her all powerful Scooter if you win an almost impossible optional battle.

Rating: 2.75/5 The sprites are nice, but could have been nicer if the characters were hacked further to differentiate more from the original game. That and they could have used Apple Bloom's cousin Bab Seed as the 4th character instead of Dinky.

Bosses: The bosses pretty much are all the villains and main characters from MLP. Well in the case of  the Mane 6 and Two Princesses you fight Changelings disguised as the characters. Battle sprites are nice and the bosses mostly provide a great challenge. Really the only battles that aren't winnable at normal levels are the optional battles. I personally only finished the  Luna and Macintosh optional battles as the other two seemed too tedious. Sapphire Shores pretty much was the status ailment boss that used status ailments on the whole party. Rainbow Dash spammed the Sonicrainboom attacks. Luna and Big Mac as optional bosses weren't too bad and normal strategies worked well. Outsdie of the optional bosses the h\challenge honestly weans near the end.The earlier sections to be honest probably produced the biggest challenge.  The sprite work for the bosses were very nicely done. Sadly some of the music missed the mark for bosses.
4/5

Story: Well the game Ponifies Earthbound including the story. The script had some gramatical errors at times. But overall I would say the choices for episodes were nicely done. I can't quite explain it but the references pulled in made me chuckle at times. Much like Earthbound  this is a lighthearted adventure.  Though it is quite funny DJ Pon replaces the whole Runaway 5. Much with the Final Fantasy review I will go easy on the story for being Earthbound.
4.75/5

Challenge: I personally found this harder than Earthbound most of the way through. However towards the end outside of optional bosses the difficulty seems to fall flat. Pretty much if you can finish the 8 Elements the rest is a breeze. Until that point there's plenty of challenge.  Then if you want to take on optional bosses there's a super challenge.
Rating 5/5

Music: I personally only liked one remix and that was the MLP Theme for Ponyville. Outside of that a lot of the music is screeching. It is overall bearable but just barely. Original Earthbound had great music, Equestriabound however had screeching ear bleeding music at times.
Rating 1.5/5 Saved by the excellent MLP theme the rest especially battle music was pretty bad.


Gameplay: The tried and true Dragon Quest display. Simple but very effective. I like the KISS method which is why DQ/EB's battle style is one of my favorites. So hey of course I'll give this a good score.
Rating: 5/5

Presentation: The graphics are excellent, the boss portraits are great. I know where the time was spent. Definitely in the graphics department.
Rating 5/5

Overall: This is fun hack overall, but you may want to play your own music or pull out that collection of Earthbound SPC's as it definitely had superior music. If the music wouldn't have been touched the game would have scored higher. Music is very important in an RPG. The presentation and beautiful sprites can't completely make up for the music, but they did a nice job. I did enjoy this hack and felt it had a very good challenge. I will say if you're an MLP fan you would probably enjoy this fan service. If you're an Earthbound fan you may wonder what happened to your beloved gem.


Overall score: 28/35 or for those who like the percentages 80%

Review# 1: Final Fantasy VI: Eternal Crystals

By popular request I decided to write a mini request on the rom hack of Final Fantasy VI.

Character Overview:
Eternal Crystals is a fairly well done hack with a lot of changes to the original Final Fantasy VI. Some changes involve characters being locked to certain skill sets. Edgar for instance is moved more to a Dragoon even with Dragoon sprite. He receives the skills of both jump and Dragon which replaces skills. Tina/Terra pretty much remains the same and learns Magic naturally and via Espers, but now has blonde hair from the concept art. Locke gains the throw command, but otherwise remains the same. Sabin by default can dual equip claws which are his only weapons, he gets the Kick command from Yang/FF5 Monk and keeps his Blitz command. Blitz though is severely hindered due to Sabin's low magic stat. Shadow is pretty much the same, but receives Gil Toss and by default can dual equip weapons. Cyan probably has the most changes as for the first part of the game he is a Dark Knight and has his same old SwdTech renamed Dark Swd with differing effects. But after the dream sequence he becomes a Paladin and gains access to Magic via Espers/Equipment and some really overpowered weaponry and armor. Setzer remains the same old Setzer same skills and can still learn Magic via Espers. Gau gains the ability to equip more weapons and has the fight command, but otherwise is very much the same with learning rages. Mog gets the control command and still keeps the dances renamed Geomance. Strago becomes a Black Mage sprite but otherwise is the same. Relm remains the same more or less with Sketch and can learn magic via Espers/Equipment but is titled as a white mage. Celes is the same old Celes Runic/Magic. Umaro had a complete transformation into Biggs who is a Magitek soldier and is controllable. Gogo becomes Emperor Zemus, but otherwise is the same Mimic and since he has a higher magic stat can make full use of Blitzes.   So overall the characters are very refreshing but at the same time still the same core cast.
     Now one problem you will soon realize is that characters that can equip Espers generally become better due to stat bonuses compared to other characters. I'll say that Cyan and Tina are probably the top tier characters due to having access to X-Magic accessories. The same strategy of X-magic+Quick results in tons of turns not to mention each receives equipment that boosts their MP to near max and you can easily use Osmose with X-Magic to restore your MP supply.  The next tier would probably fall to Celes as she is everything Tina/Cyan is minus X-Magic overpowered equipment that boosts her MP to near max she also like Tina gets access to high level swords. After Celes I would say the next most useful character is Strago and if Strago had access to the same equips as Celes he'd probably be better as Grand Train and other Blue Magic makes him almost indispensable not to mention the Blue Magic equivalents are usually cheaper to cast than the normal magic version. Give Strago a gold hairpin and watch him destroy.  Shadow would probably be the next character with access to Aura which gives X-Fight and the fact he can dual equip means Shadow can still do decent damage with the fight command, not to mention gil toss and throw can still out damage most everyone else. Biggs probably comes next in the character hierarchy and possibly could be higher up as he has some very useful Magitek attacks and his equipment choices are decent. Setzer/Relm would probably make up the next tier just for having access to magic. Magic really is OP in this hack and every magic user could be near the top, but sadly equipment is lacking for Setzer and Relm to have them any higher. Gau who if you put time in collecting all his good rages could be at the top, but he is one of the characters that is more  of a chore to make good but is more useful than stock Gau just due to having better equip choices. Edgar has access to some Dragoon only equip and has an accessory that allows him to jump 4-5 times on an enemy, sadly most Dragon tools  do lower damage again due to running off a low Magic stat. Mog really has one good use and that is simply the Moogle Charm and in battle he can also be useful for blue magic gathering with control. Sadly his equip choices make him a bit disappointing. Locke/Sabin would probably be the lowest tier. Now Locke overall could be higher as throw can still be super useful even late game, but his equip choices are lacking. Sabin would be amazing if  he had a higher magic stat to take full advantage of his Blitzes, his dual equip claws can be useful, but again magic is king. Zemus who I have left out of the character ratings just because his usability depends on the skills other characters will be using. If you are using Quick/X-Magic then Zemus is at the top by mimicking the combo.  Zemus can stand  on his own with the right skill set and makes  a great Blitzer.
Character rating overall: 3/5 Namely due to the lacking character balance

Story: The transformation of the story was refreshing. Changing the story to follow the classic 4 Crystals keeping the world in balance and the balance being disrupted by the Dark Crystals. The new dialog at points was well written to fit the narrative. The references thrown in from other Final Fantasy games made this feel almost like a Final Fantasy all-star story. So yes I loved the tweaks to the story bringing in elements from FF10 about the final summoning and then establishing the story to follow similar to FF3. That and since it still follows the same story structure of FF6 it was remarkable.
Rating 5/5

Bosses: The boss choices were interesting from throwing the Mist Dragon in to using Zande from FF3. Unfortunately some of the bosses were designed with a poor gimmick. I mostly will mention Atmos, who was an optional boss,  but the gimmick was to win you more or less had to run him out of MP as he countered every attack with White Wind. Rasp/Rasp/Rasp pretty much is what the battle comes down to. Outside of this one boss most bosses presented a real challenge. I will leave this playlist of boss battles I created to give a sample of bosses Boss List. Some really good bosses and some just annoying. The Atmos battle alone though is almost  enough to take a full point off from this section. However the fact the game has Battle of Big Bridge for some battles saves it from th full point deduction. I have a soft spot for the Gilgamesh Battles because of the theme. Which brings us to the next category,
4.25/5


Music: The music choices are great between the music used from other FF games. Here's looking at the FF4 music used throughout. But hey Battle of the Big Bridge is here. Also untouched is Dancing Mad so the soundtrack holds up and fits the mood of the story very well.
5/5

Challenge: FF6 Eternal Crystals has a strange curve. Some of the earlier battles seem a lot more challenging namely due to skills available. The major road block early on is the Gilgamesh/Enkidu battle. Outside of that battle the rest of the game is pretty smooth sailing until the evil Cerebus boss later on. Kaiser Dragon probably presents the biggest challenge especially if you don't use the quick/x-magic spam. (To be fair I forgot where to get the accessories before this battle). Overall the challenge is there and then some if you're not prepared. So much like the original Final Fantasy VI the challenge depends on your preparedness , but overall it probably is more challenging than the vanilla game.
4.5/5

Game play: The game plays like Final Fantasy VI. Not really any major improvements done just skills swapped around. Really wish they would have used the auto dash feature so you wouldn't have to use Sprint Shoes. But it's not a big mark against it as possibly the patch wasn't around at the time of this hack.
4.75/5

Presentation: The hack has wonderful visuals and even the graphics used from other games fit well into the FF6 engine. The game is pleasing on the eyes. Again mostly because it's still FF6 at the essence .
5/5

Overall
 31.5/35 or for those who like percentiles 90%