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RPG Week 2, I Guess


On 05/08/2025 at 12:44 PM by KnightDriver

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I got another day, maybe, but I got a weird work schedule again this week and so am here recalling the day and half I spent so far.

I have to say, I'm tiring of my plan right now. I basically shelved it except for the library rental I'm about to get (Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood). I started a list of most recent games I really want to play, and just by chance, landed on a turn-based RPG; and not only that, a remaster of a 1991 Japanese only boardgame/rpg mashup, Sugoro Quest: Dice Heroes

It was the nice price of $6 on Xbox this week, and so I scarfed it up. I was initially miffed at it because the dice rolls seem highly adjusted to make you play longer; that is, they go against you at just the wrong time to make you lose and have to restart an area. But I learned some things they don't clearly tell you about as I played, and it suddenly got a little less unfair. It is still quite annoying at times though. 

This is a mashup that reminds me of the Culdcept series. You roll the dice to move along a path like a board game and land on squares that give you a battle, a rest, or some dialog to move the story along. . . oh, and upgrades and curses. . . and probably other things when I get past the second stage. 

You pick from four characters, equip him/her and start a mission which ends in a boss fight, or two. Battles are turn-based and involve yourself and a dice master whom you can call into battle to roll the dice for you (I learned this later on as I had no idea what the "call" function was). A roll of one gives you a terrible dice master who may knock himself on the head by accident or just run from the battle. A six gives you a master that may award you health or other bonuses. The enemy does the same, though, and can knock you flat with a critical, lower you power dice rating, or other dread things I haven't come across yet. 

Dice determine the success of an attack like initiative or damage dice in a DnD game. If you tie, another round of dice is rolled until there is a winner. This creates a combo attack that can do a lot of damage. Also, the farther appart the dice rolls are, the more damage you do, like a 4 against a 1 gives you 4x damage, or visa-versa.

I did fine as the Fighter, won the first mission, but in the second got beat by the final boss several times. The second time almost made me want to quit because I prepped for it so hard, and was so at a large avantage to the boss (my health was 400 to the boss' 150) that I thought I couldn't lose even with bad dice rolls. Well, I was wrong. The battle went so against me, I temporarily quit the game. My dice master knocked himself out on the first roll, I lost almost every single dice roll after that and had my power dice lowered for both my dice master and myself. My 400 HP became nothing in short order while I did only 75 damage to the boss. This seemed so fixed and absurd to me. 

But I dove back in with a new character, The Dwarf, and had a lot more success with him. Maybe it was that I learned the dice master strategy and used it on every battle, I don't know. But, when I got to that second stage boss with almost the same advantage I had with my fighter, I got beat again by impossibly bad dice rolls. I just laughed this time and prepared to try again. 

The game is growing on me despite its sometimes unfair dice rolls, much like Culdcept did, which has the same problem with crazy comebacks and obviously loaded dice. I like it and can't stop thinking about it now. 

The Dumb Stuff I Play During Lunch Breaks

Clicker Heroes - I'm still clickin' away hoping to get enough gems for my first Ascention. Ascending restarts everything but gives you Hero Stones you can spend to buy more powerful battlers. It's a bit like how Grim Idle works. My friend is way ahead of me, but he bought some gems with real money, so that's not the same thing. I haven't spent a dime. 

Lego Marvel Super Heroes - Clicker Heroes isn't exactly dropping achievements for me right now, and I'm getting behind my friends, and so I loaded up some mostly easy games from my backlog on Xbox. I've previously played through the story of this game, but now I'm hunting down collectibles. I took some time to reaquaint myself with the location of the upgrade store and all the many powers you can weild to solve puzzles, but I think I'm back in the groove again. There is quite the open world New York City to tool around in and replays of all the story missions. Plenty to do here. I'm at about 1/3 complete so far. 

Maybe I play some tomorrow, but maybe not. I suppose I'll update on Sat if I get a chance. 


 

Comments

Cary Woodham

05/08/2025 at 03:42 PM

My knowledge of Marvel characters either comes from the movies (but I forget them pretty quickly), Marvel vs. Capcom, and the LEGO Marvel games.  I learned that She Hulk existed because of Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  I decided she'd be my favorite Marvel character because Phoenix Wright was in her ending, because I guess they're both lawyers?  Anyhow, whatever you do, just don't watch the She Hulk show on Disney+.  That was awful.  People on TV don't know how to be funny anymore.

KnightDriver

05/10/2025 at 02:21 PM

I used to read Dr. Strange comics a few years back and an occational Hulk one so I could share it with my friend who's a big Hulk fan. So I knew of She-Hulk. I didn't know she was in Marvel vs. Capcom. That's kind of cool. 

daftman

05/10/2025 at 11:08 AM

I have a hard time trusting games that are reliant on RNG, since they can so easily cheat against you. But if they are not trying to get you to pay additional money, then it ought to be balanced for fun but it doesn't always work out that way. Sounds like you're having a good time with this game, so that's cool.

I'm finally back to playing things. I just finished Shadow of the Ninja Reborn, which is cool because I played the orignal NES game back in the day.

KnightDriver

05/10/2025 at 02:29 PM

Progress in Clicker Heroes begins to slow after a little while as if it's saying, "don't you want to buy something now?", but I ignore that, leave the game for a while and return for a reward that gets me going again. Rinse and repeat. I'm almost able to Ascend right now, so I'm not thinking of quiting yet. I was so out of other free-2-plays because of this though. It's always the same routine, but you get some fun in for a little while.

Shadow of the Ninja looks pretty great. I think I had it on my wish list but it didn't go on sale in time for the month I had it there. I'll have to remember that one for next time. 

Ranger1

05/12/2025 at 08:51 PM

I've also done a recent replay of Lego Marvel Superheroes. I gave my physical copy away to a friend who needed a good multiplayer game for her kids, and the Nintendo Store had a big sale, so I picked it up.I have a love/hate relationship with it. I find the flyng and driving controls to be horrible when it comes to doing the races, and that keeps me from getting 100% in the game.

KnightDriver

05/17/2025 at 03:17 PM

Exactly my experience! I am two achievements away from 100% but they all require extensive racing by car or plane. I nearly broke a controler on one of them. I was happy enough rescuing the last of the Stan Lees and stopped there. 

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