Taloon's Great Adventure
Dec. 30th, 2010 01:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroTaloon's Great Adventure was the first in a series of roguelikes featuring Torneko Taloon, the merchant from chapter 4 of Dragon Quest 4. It was released for the Super Famicom only, of course. Torneko: The Last Hope, the PSX sequel, was actually released in the US. (Also noteworthy: The game was made by Chunsoft, not Enix.) Magic-Destiny's fan translation is comparable to any professional US release, in that it's not Shakespeare, but it's nicely thorough and this game doesn't require deathless prose to get the job done. Every item, monster and bit of dialogue is translated, and the NPCs around your store often have advice or amusing things to say between your dungeon runs. In the post-game, several of them mock the translation differences between earlier and later Dragon Quest games.
These games are "kind roguelikes", so they take many of the qualities of roguelikes but lessen the punishing frustration...somewhat. Your goal is to enter the mysterious dungeon, which changes every time you enter, retrieve a treasure from one of the lower floors, and escape. The game is turn-based, so monsters only move when you do. You have HP, a strength score (which can be decreased by poison) and a hunger meter, and you need to keep all of them high with items you find in the dungeon, because you can't bring anything in with you.
If you die, you lose everything and need to restart. This game is kind, though, in that you only lose half your gold when you die, so you can keep going for high scores even when you get killed. Also, there are Outside Scrolls which let you escape early and sell everything you're carrying for more cash. (The fact that dying doesn't dump you at the title screen is a kindness in roguelikes, frankly.) And it isn't intentional by the programmers, but playing on an emulator means access to save states, so you can save-and-restart if you want to. (Though each floor is generated several levels in advance, so there's a limit to how much you can save-scum, hoping for the blessings of the RNG.) The other kindness is that monsters spawn "sleeping" fairly often, so you can get a free hit on them or avoid them entirely.
You slowly regenerate HP, which is critical, but you also have the ever-decreasing food meter. The most useful item in the game may be the Belly Ring, which keeps your food meter locked at 100%, which means you can pass turns to fill your health any time you aren't actively being attacked, and you can spend much more time on each floor searching nooks and crannies.
In the grand tradition Tom Nook picked up in the Animal Crossing games, you use the treasure to expand your home and store. Or more specifically, your wife does, and cheerfully leaves you the bills. Each time you earn an upgrade, you have to immediately start working on the next one.
Beyond that, though, most of the roguelike standards are there: Weak plot (Taloon is trying to raise money to build up his business by finding treasure), cruel gameplay features (a very limited inventory to deal with a lot of potential problems, cursed items, traps, monsters who cast Sleep in a single-character game, and a randomizer that can make your dungeon-delves unwinnable), and general repetitiveness (there are three dungeons, but the only difference is that the first is only 10 floors deep and the third is crueler).
Torneko: The Last Hope actually improved on a lot of these things by allowing you to take multiple items in and out of the dungeon. Starting with the weapons you recovered on the previous trip makes a lot of difference in the frustration level, because it feels like you're making progress, rather than just getting lucky that time through. This game lets you have access to a "vault" after several upgrades, but you can only store 10 items and bring one in.
The noteworth gameplay tips that I came up with: In the first few floors, your biggest concern are finding equipment and dealing with Wizards--wizards are insanely dangerous early on because they can put you to sleep and beat you to death while you're helpless. And if you don't find a half-decent weapon and shield in the first five floors, you probably won't survive that run. Fight monsters in hallways and corners so they can't gang up on you. And don't be afraid to use the things you find--keeping a few items for a raining day is important, but hoarding too much means you're not going to survive to reach that rainy day.
Beyond that, the general strategy to the game basically revolves around when you stop being thorough and start rushing. In the early floors of the dungeon, you want to check every room and every item, and kill every monster for the XP. In the lower floors, especially once there's a goal you're trying to reach, it becomes prudent to just find the stairs and descend as quickly as possible. (And when you're climbing back out, that's pretty much the only strategy--very few items spawn while ascending.) On the early floors, the enemies that do more than just attack can be compensated for: Mushrooms poison you and reduce your strength, but Antidote herbs are pretty plentiful. Horks can destroy your shield, but you can use a Plating Scroll, wear one of the two immune shields, or just de-equip your shield while fighting them. Trick Bags will steal your money and Demonites steal items, but you can usually accept the loss or chase them down (though Demonites can be hellish during an ascent--they can steal your quest item). Derangers warp you around, which is occasionally even helpful. The lower floors start having really nasty enemies: The Mud Puppet enemies can permanently reduce your level; Mystic Dolls can permanently reduce your max Strength or HP. Shadows are invisible unless you have an Eyedrop Herb. Bomb Crags explode if you kill them, leaving you at 1 HP and destroying nearby items. Giant Eyeballs can confuse you from a distance, leaving you moving and swinging randomly. And just about everything else is stronger than you will likely ever be.
Overall? It's a fun little diversion, though I wouldn't want to play more than a couple of runs "fairly", because real roguelikes aren't my style. I suppose if you wanted to ease into destroying your life trying to beat Nethack, this wouldn't be a bad set of training wheels.
These games are "kind roguelikes", so they take many of the qualities of roguelikes but lessen the punishing frustration...somewhat. Your goal is to enter the mysterious dungeon, which changes every time you enter, retrieve a treasure from one of the lower floors, and escape. The game is turn-based, so monsters only move when you do. You have HP, a strength score (which can be decreased by poison) and a hunger meter, and you need to keep all of them high with items you find in the dungeon, because you can't bring anything in with you.
If you die, you lose everything and need to restart. This game is kind, though, in that you only lose half your gold when you die, so you can keep going for high scores even when you get killed. Also, there are Outside Scrolls which let you escape early and sell everything you're carrying for more cash. (The fact that dying doesn't dump you at the title screen is a kindness in roguelikes, frankly.) And it isn't intentional by the programmers, but playing on an emulator means access to save states, so you can save-and-restart if you want to. (Though each floor is generated several levels in advance, so there's a limit to how much you can save-scum, hoping for the blessings of the RNG.) The other kindness is that monsters spawn "sleeping" fairly often, so you can get a free hit on them or avoid them entirely.
You slowly regenerate HP, which is critical, but you also have the ever-decreasing food meter. The most useful item in the game may be the Belly Ring, which keeps your food meter locked at 100%, which means you can pass turns to fill your health any time you aren't actively being attacked, and you can spend much more time on each floor searching nooks and crannies.
In the grand tradition Tom Nook picked up in the Animal Crossing games, you use the treasure to expand your home and store. Or more specifically, your wife does, and cheerfully leaves you the bills. Each time you earn an upgrade, you have to immediately start working on the next one.
Beyond that, though, most of the roguelike standards are there: Weak plot (Taloon is trying to raise money to build up his business by finding treasure), cruel gameplay features (a very limited inventory to deal with a lot of potential problems, cursed items, traps, monsters who cast Sleep in a single-character game, and a randomizer that can make your dungeon-delves unwinnable), and general repetitiveness (there are three dungeons, but the only difference is that the first is only 10 floors deep and the third is crueler).
Torneko: The Last Hope actually improved on a lot of these things by allowing you to take multiple items in and out of the dungeon. Starting with the weapons you recovered on the previous trip makes a lot of difference in the frustration level, because it feels like you're making progress, rather than just getting lucky that time through. This game lets you have access to a "vault" after several upgrades, but you can only store 10 items and bring one in.
The noteworth gameplay tips that I came up with: In the first few floors, your biggest concern are finding equipment and dealing with Wizards--wizards are insanely dangerous early on because they can put you to sleep and beat you to death while you're helpless. And if you don't find a half-decent weapon and shield in the first five floors, you probably won't survive that run. Fight monsters in hallways and corners so they can't gang up on you. And don't be afraid to use the things you find--keeping a few items for a raining day is important, but hoarding too much means you're not going to survive to reach that rainy day.
Beyond that, the general strategy to the game basically revolves around when you stop being thorough and start rushing. In the early floors of the dungeon, you want to check every room and every item, and kill every monster for the XP. In the lower floors, especially once there's a goal you're trying to reach, it becomes prudent to just find the stairs and descend as quickly as possible. (And when you're climbing back out, that's pretty much the only strategy--very few items spawn while ascending.) On the early floors, the enemies that do more than just attack can be compensated for: Mushrooms poison you and reduce your strength, but Antidote herbs are pretty plentiful. Horks can destroy your shield, but you can use a Plating Scroll, wear one of the two immune shields, or just de-equip your shield while fighting them. Trick Bags will steal your money and Demonites steal items, but you can usually accept the loss or chase them down (though Demonites can be hellish during an ascent--they can steal your quest item). Derangers warp you around, which is occasionally even helpful. The lower floors start having really nasty enemies: The Mud Puppet enemies can permanently reduce your level; Mystic Dolls can permanently reduce your max Strength or HP. Shadows are invisible unless you have an Eyedrop Herb. Bomb Crags explode if you kill them, leaving you at 1 HP and destroying nearby items. Giant Eyeballs can confuse you from a distance, leaving you moving and swinging randomly. And just about everything else is stronger than you will likely ever be.
Overall? It's a fun little diversion, though I wouldn't want to play more than a couple of runs "fairly", because real roguelikes aren't my style. I suppose if you wanted to ease into destroying your life trying to beat Nethack, this wouldn't be a bad set of training wheels.
