Whiskey Tasting Notes, part 3 (Japanese)

The third and final week of Alex at Camp Papa and Grandma; and the third and final birthday tasting set.

• Hibiki Japanese Harmony – Very pleasant nose. There’s a fruitiness here, a dark stone fruit like plum or even prune. The finish is spicy; a bit rough with a bit of brown sugar.
• The Chita – Strong honey nose, also some grain. Starts very slowly, not a lot of front taste. Takes a long time to develop, but with a burn at the end. Subtle, like a sponge cake soaked in honey that very briefly catches fire.
• Mars Maltage Cosmo – Nose is slightly chocolaty, with also a subtle berry scent—brings to mind chocolate covered fruit. It’s dense, rich, and warm, but the taste isn’t actually fruity. It brings to mind hot chocolate, and Jethrien liked the taste to orange oil—aromatic without actually tasting of fruit. Also quite a bit of kick.
• Nikka Whisky From the Barrel – Smells of caramel and spice. The burn comes on quickly; this really needs some water to lighten that. I thought there was an interesting and complex taste under that burn; Jethrien found it reminiscent of motor oil and didn’t like it.
• Nikka Taketsuru Pure Malt – Fruity nose, smells of prunes and sherry. It’s very smooth, with a honeyed cereal and grain flavor, ending with a more bitter taste somewhere between coffee and fruit pith. The tasting notes said there was smoke; we didn’t get that at all.

Overall: The Japanese whiskeys clearly aim sweeter with more honey flavor; and go for a fuller, creamier mouthfeel. That is not a complaint; I’d love to try more of them. Also, my research on tasting suggested a Japanese style of drinking whiskey is one part whiskey, two parts mineral water in a glass of ice; and I’m interested in trying that with a whiskey specifically recommended for it.

Final Fantasy C2

Final Fantasy C2 is a hack created by Japanese fan Naka no Hito in 2016. This hack takes Final Fantasy IV on Super Famicom (SNES) and transforms it into an updated version of Final Fantasy II on Famicom using FFIV graphics. Clyde “Tomato” Mandelin (of Legends of Localization and the Mother 3 translation) made a fan translation patch for it and a few edits.

Characters start out very weak—a single battle is risky at level 1. There’s a free healing spot in Altair, fortunately. They kept the initial grind from FF2, just using FF4’s standard leveling system. Just to contrast: Your characters start at level 1, and it’s very likely that you’ll die in two hits from pretty much any enemy around the starting area. (And without anywhere near enough money to upgrade your characters.) Minwu starts at level 20 when he joins you; many other characters join woefully underpowered. And just fighting things as you progress isn’t enough—either you play really strategically, or you grind like crazy.

In the end, equipment does matter more than levels: Exploiting elemental and type weaknesses really makes a difference (to the point where strategic play means changing your weapons in any given battle), and high-level equipment makes more difference than a few levels do. I think they added stat modifiers to many pieces of equipment that didn’t have them before, so which weapon or armor piece you use (and many weaker pieces stay relevant for longer because of their stat effects) changes the effectiveness of your characters in a given role. Despite Maria and Lenora both having most black and white magic available, you really want to spec one for high Will and one for high Wisdom.

Full list of notes and observations:

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Overall: This is a curiosity for fans of FF2, FF4 or preferably both. The difficulty balance is for hardcore players. Tomato apparently had to add dialogue to hint players unfamiliar with FF2 of where to go next; and while I didn’t push it, you clearly can get various places early and probably break the programming. And because FF4 is longer than FF2 but with different-length dungeons, you get the tail end of FF4 pretty much as normal here. I’m glad I tried it out, but it isn’t a classic for the ages.