Text Play: Pokémon Xenoverse #18

Hello, and welcome back to the Eldiw region! This is entry number 18 in my Text Play of Pokémon Xenoverse!

Now, as tradition for Text Plays like these, I wish to warn you. I will be spoiling this game.

I highly recommend you play this game for yourself first before reading this Text Play. You can download the game here. And with that out of the way, let's do this!

This month, I hope to finally take on Queen Nuphar and get that fourth badge. Geez, I can't believe it's taking this long.

When we first enter the gym, there is a pot in the room. Check it out, as it contains a Hyper Potion.

If you see a free Hyper Potion, take it. You never know when you'll need one. One of the reasons that this gym has taken so long to get through is because of the puzzles. That's fine. I'm all up for shaking the Pokémon formula up a bit. Besides, puzzles are fun! I like puzzles!

Sadly, we don't really get puzzles. At least, in my opinion. We're going to have to walk on certain paths. Like I said last time, the gym has paths with tiles that have Pokémon drawn on them in the style of Egyptian hieroglyphs. They call it the "Game of Farfetch'd". I have no idea why.

So, we start on the first path of the game: The Grass Path.

Now, here's something that I have a bit of a problem with. The drawings are of Pokémon that I don't think you see in this game. At least, at this point. Also, the Grass-type Pokémon depicted on these tiles aren't exactly famous. I mean, I can understand having Bulbasaur on the tiles. Bulbasaur is a Grass-type (also Poison, but that's just being pedantic), and it's a pretty well-known Pokémon. 

You may be asking, "What happens when you walk on the wrong tile on this path?" Well, if you do, you fall down to a basement floor.

There's plenty to explore down here. The screenshot is where you end up if you goof up on the Grass path. There's also plenty of guards to battle if you want to get your Pokemon some last-minute XP. You may also be thinking "Oh God, we're trapped down here we're doomed were gonna die here-!"

Relax. Calm down. It's going to be okay. There is a way out. We just have to make our way to this room. 

Before we jump the ledge to it, we can battle the guard as seen on top of the screenshot above. the guard's name is Fida. Yeah, I have no idea. 

1st Pokemon: Gyarados (Lv. 32) - Defeated by Harrowk.

See that staircase in the screenshot there? Going up that will take you back up to the room that contains the entrance to the Grass Path. You may notice that there are lots of little pots like the three here in this screenshot. I suggest you check them. They may have handy items. For example, that little pot in the corner of the screenshot.

A nice fizzy Soda Pop. A cool drink that can help restore HP. The other two pots in this room are empty. Don't worry about them. Once that's done, go up the path, and get back on the Grass Path. The effigies of the Pokemon can be a bit hard to read, but I drew out a path for you to get through it yourself.

Hope that helps you out. Just follow the red line. it goes through the tiles depicting Pansage and Leafeon. Once we follow the path, we end up in this room.

Not much here. Just some columns, a couple pots, and another little statue with glowing lettering on it. First, I'll check the pots. See if there's any handy items in them. 

...and it turns out there are none. Awww, I wanted another Hyper Potion.

Aw, well. This room leads to another one of those paths we have to walk through. Luckily, the neary obelisk with the glowing lettering tells us how to master it. 

With this path, we have to walk on the tiles depicting Fire-type Pokémon. If you screw up, you end up back in that basement level. 

Well, we ended up near some pots. Let's check them! 

...and they're all empty. Anyway, we have to go upwards from here. It'll take us to a room with a ledge on the right side. Jump down it, go down from that room, and back up to the beginning. This is why you have to avoid stepping on the wrong tiles. So, how does the Fire Path go? Well, not to worry! I got you covered!

Yup! Just walk on the tiles that have Pansear and Volcarona on them. 

Walking the Fire Path will bring us here.

This room don't really look that different from the room the Grass Path ended at. They just replaced the columns with some plants. I like the plants. Gives this place some much needed color. I checked the pots again. Two were empty, but I lucked out in the left pot next to the statue with glowing lettering.

It's an Elixir! Also in the room is an advisor named Cheris. Yeah, advisor. He's not a guard. The guards are the guys in black. The ninja wannabes we saw all over the place when we first came to Ishtar. We have to battle him to continue on. Man's a bit of an odd duck. Rambling on about nothing happening when we're alone and an odd power emerging and intensifying when people are together. Yeah, I think he's been in this pyramid too long. Man needs some fresh air. Hopefully, this battle will bring him back to reality.

1st Pokemon: Starmie (Lv. 32) - Defeated by Phantump.

It seemed to work a bit. After the battle, Cheris explains to us that he was trying to impart a lesson onto us from the Unown. Yeah, the Pokemon that appear in the shapes of various letters. In fact, the signs that tell us how to walk the paths are done in Unown lettering. 

Well, now we have to continue on. The statue with the glowing lettering shows us the path to walk.

Huh. First a Grass path, then a Fire path, now a Water path. Well, considering that we learned from Abraham that the starter Pokemon of this game (well, at least those three particular species) were supposedly born from Luxflon, maybe this is the Ishtarians' way of honoring them. 

...wait, that makes no sense. The paths would likely have the starters on them if that was the case. You have to walk on the tiles with the Panpour and Kabutops on them. Like in the screenshot shown below. 

Once you make it over the Water Path, you end up in this hallway.

We check the pots here, and the third one contains a PP Max. The others are empty. we have to battle the advisor named Daarius at the end of the hall. he tells us he believes there is no such thing as luck. that there are only moments where preparation meets opportunity. Whatever, bud. 

1st Pokemon: Pyukumuku (Lv. 32) - Defeated by Phantump.

After beating him, he says that fortune will smile on one man or the other, but never both. I dunno, if one man won a Pokémon battle, and the loser bought a lottery ticket later that day and won big, sounds like fortune is smiling on them both to me, just in different ways. Anyway, we end up in this crossroad.

Do we go up, or do we go down? Well, maybe the statue with the glowing letters can tell us. After all, they've been helpful before.

...oh for Pete's sake.

Well, this doesn't help anything. Where do I go? Let's try going on the upwards path...

And that didn't work. Turns out if you step on any of the Unown tiles, you end up back in the basement.

Interesting thing is if we go upwards from this room we end up in, there's a chamber with a crack in the wall.

Hmmm...I honestly can't help but wonder if this was something we could open up if we had Shulong instead of Trishout. Ah, well. It's nothing we can do anything about now. We gotta get back up to the main floor. But first, check out this pot.

If you like using these, there you go. I don't really do myself, but...yeah. We can also battle the guard nearby.

1st Pokemon: Carvanha (Lv. 30) - Defeated by Phantump.
2nd pokemon: Birigiri (Lv. 30) - Defeated by Harrowk.

When we defeat the guard, he laments that he failed his Queen. To get back up from here, we have to go all the way to the left. We go up slightly, and we find ourselves in another chamber.

The chamber is actually pretty big, with four lines of columns. And see those pots in the bottom-right corner? What do we do? Check them, that's right. There is one thing in this chamber that amuses me. There's this one guard who races up and down like his bloodstream is pure undiluted Red Bull. Or those Kwik-E-Mart squishees in that one episode of the Simpsons. 

I would not be surprised if his heart explodes in a year.

You can battle him if you wish. He's all up for it, as he's been waiting for a trainer to come down to his neck of the woods.

1st Pokemon: Corphish (Lv. 29) - Defeated by Phantump.
2nd Pokemon: Gyarados (Lv. 31) - Defeated by Harrowk.

At the top of the chamber, there's a trio of pots and ledges. There's nothing in the pots. you leap down the ledges, go up, then right, then hop down another ledge, down, hop a ledge, and you're in the chamber that takes you back up to the entrance to the Grass path. It's annoying...but in this case, it's not so bad. I need to leave and get me some more healing items, anyway. When I got to the Pokémon Center, I talked to the dude in the Mimikyuu hat, and he gave me a free Super Potion.

How nice. You never know when a free potion will come in handy. While in the Center, I picked up some more supplies, and headed back into the gym. I made my way back to the fork path and decided to go downwards. It took a bit of trial and error, but I was able to make my way down the Luck Path. Thankfully, it's short. 

At the end of the path, there's a stairway. Nearby is a pot that contains Energy Powder. We go down the stairwell, and find ourselves in another chamber. 

Okay...this chamber is filled with pots. Lots of pots. So many pots. Pots on top of pots. Pots for days...

Right, right, right, my apologies. I couldn't resist. But it's not a complete loss. Some of these pots contain items: a Cosmic Ball (a special Pokeball that helps capture Pokemon that use a Moon Stone to evolve), a Revival Herb. 4 Nuggets, a Big Nugget, and a Revive. I think we accidentally ended up in the gym's treasure stash. Whoops. Ah, well! Ours now!

Going back up to the crossroads, it turns out we have to walk the Unown Path. Figuring out this path was a bit frustrating, I will admit. Luckily, everyone reading this blog post doesn't have to worry about it, because I got a map for you.

You're welcome. The path ends at a pair of gates. At the other side of the gates is a large set of steps. Go down those steps, and we find ourselves in this room...

...and we learn that was just the first challenge!

All that, just to find out we have another challenge. How frustrating. Anyway, this challenge is called "Unown Checkers". Thankfully, this one is simple...if you know your ABCs, that is. Just move on the squares that show Unown from A to Z. However, don't get complacent. there are plenty of pitfalls here. Also, some of the teleport tiles may try to mislead us, forcing us to retrace steps. We need brains and some luck. The white square in the screenshot is a teleport pad, and we're on the "A" Unown tile...

...and we're going to have to go into it next month. My apologies to everyone here. I hoped we could get to face Queen Nuphar, too. I'm playing this game blind, so I was just as surprised as you to see a second puzzle level. And sadly, I rean out of time to get through it, as I wanted to maintain my schedule of putting up these Text Plays on the final day of every month. So again, I am sorry. Hopefully, next month, we'll get through this.

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!

Kraven the Hunter Trailer, My Thoughts

Now, before we look at this trailer, I wish to warn you, this is a red band trailer. That means it's going to be a bit bloodier than the standard trailer. With that warning out of the way, let's look at this thing!

"Dudes, I am so high right now..."

Little known fact: Kraven hates people who go nuts while driving. The road is sacred to him. 

Those people owe Kraven money, don't they?

"You uncle Vlad had...issues, but we do not talk about that." I seriously hope Russell Crowe got a fat check for this. That's the only reason I'd ever appear in one of these movies.

Kraven's Last Hunt reference! "They said my mother was insane..."

So is Kraven's dad here like, a Russian gangster or something? Would be hilarious if it turned out he was just a video game collector. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a scene of Russell Crowe fighting someone over a rare cartridge?

Wait, so is Kraven here like some kind of metahuman or something? He got powers from lion blood? 

Kraven's Dad: "What was Death like, son?"
Kraven: "Death turned out to be this really nice Goth chick. We had tea together."

Oh, come on, can't his vest have a lion face on it? I'm hoping this is just a preliminary vest before he gets the lion-face vest. If this was in the MCU, he'd have his lion-face vest. I mean, they found a way to give Electro his star-shaped mask...

"Yech, your nose tastes terrible! Eat more fiber!"

Is that Calypso? I think that is Calypso.

Bear trap death.

Yeah, another Kraven's Last Hunt reference there. The bit with Kraven surrounded by spiders. 

"Man, I love this crossbow." 

Oh, gawd. here comes the Rhino!

I have to admit, I do find the decision to do a film focusing on Kraven the Hunter to be a bit...of an odd decision. I kind of can get why they would do a solo film with Venom, as the character has had lots of development and his own sub-mythos, but Kraven? Yeah. Honestly, I will give this film a look if it hits TV or streaming, but this is something I may skip at the theatre. I get that nobody asks for any movie, but I especially don't see the point of this one. I doubt it will be used to set up a confrontation with Spider-Man.

Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!

Eternals #6 (March 1986)

It's that time again! It's time to rejoin the immortal space gods known as the Eternals as they engage in their greatest battle with their long-time enemies: the Deviants! Last time, quite a bit happened. Fermenting of rebellion in Lemuria, a new Eternal is introduced, we learned a bit about Ikaris's past, he argues with Thena, and Kro finds an ancient bottle. Yup, quite a lot happened. So, what goes down next? Let's find out in Eternals #6!

The cover is a Keith Pollard piece. It's a basic cover, depicting Ikaris and Kro in combat. It gives the impression that this fight is a very big deal. 

"Magnificent Obsession!"
Writer: Peter Gillis
Penciler: Sal Buscema
Inker: Sal Buscema
Colorist: George Roussos
Letterer: Rick Parker
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with Thena in Athens, Greece. 

"Oh GAWD, I need therapy..."

As can be seen in the panel, her mind is torn. She's clearly struggling with what she lost in recent times. Her father Zuras, who was supposed to be this invincible figure immune to the ravages of time and even the touch of Death itself has passed on. Her friendship with Ikaris, who has gone off to try and prevent a major Deviant attack he believes is coming. And finally, Kro...who has taken her heart. He's the leader of her people's sworn enemies, and she can't bring herself to wage war on him. 

Thena feels like she's alone and very lost. It's left her somewhat numb, the only thing giving her any comfort is the crystal around her neck, the crystal given to her by Kro. She angrily curses Kro, wondering why she has to be in love with him...as she vanishes.

Let us switch scenes to an Eternal ship, captained by Ikaris and his allies. Ikaris's worst fears have come true. The Deviants breached the Pyramid of the Winds, and now have access to the secrets in there, secrets that could doom the planet.

Ikaris is unsure of what exactly is inside the Pyramid, as his uncle Valkin never told him. Only he and Zuras knew for sure what was inside, but Zuras is dead and Valkin is out in space as part of the Uni-Mind. You'd think they'd leave a note for the other Eternals just in case something like this happened. 

Ransak is just wondering "When are we gonna fight?!" Ikaris assures him that there will be plenty of fighting, as they're right near the Deviant fleet. 

With the fleet, Lugnar begs Kro to give the priests the container that he found in the Pyramid. After all, this is what the Priests of Lemuria are after, and they should not be defied. Kro points out that he's the leader of the Deviants. He cannot defy orders because he has no bosses. He knows Lugner wanted the container so the Priests can use whatever is inside for their own plans. But Kro will let them have the contents of the container...after he's done with it. Heh.

One of the Priests appears and demands the container. The green-robed figure steps in, saying there's more going on than the Priest realizes. This drama is meant to be played out in a certain way, and the figure is here to make it sure it plays out that way...and they are not to be crossed on this.

Any further infighting is tabled as the Eternals arrive. But the Deviants have a numbers advantage. A big one.

"Oh shut up, Makkari! I can totally count them!"

Uh oh...but the Eternals are not deterred. After all, the Eternals' ship can casually handle the Deviant ships' weaponry like bullets bouncing off Superman's chest. So, the group decides to take another tactic.

"MAKKARI, YOU IDIOT! YOU'RE GONNA GET US ALL KILLED!"

Altering the ship's edges to be sharper than knives, the Eternals' ship slices through the Deviants' ships like a hot knife through butter. A surprisingly unique tactic.

With the ships taken care off, all that's left is the ground troopers. The Eternals' ship puts a forcefield around Ikaris, Kro, and their allies. The blond powerhouse demands that Kro hand over what he got from the Pyramid, but Kro's like "nah, come and get it". And then the two fight.

But enough big epic action for a while. Let's check in on Sersi and her new human project, Dave Chatterton. The two are enjoying some dinner in a fine New York restaurant alongside another human friend of Sersi's: Samuel Holden. They had enjoyed a play, but Dave is more interested in the Eternals' drama than the stage drama. He wants to be in on the whole thing. This is history, and he wants to witness it live and in living color! Sersi warns him that this is dangerous by making a scorpion appear on his hand. Dave waves it off, pointing out she found him when he was about to jump off a building and that he's also aware of her tricks.

He wants to be involved in this because it excites him. He felt like he was left out of everything else in life, but this? This is exciting! Sersi admits she has found the other Eternals' drama quite dull...but seeing it through Dave's eyes makes it exciting again. She also is impressed by his courage. After all, if he can shrug off a scorpion, then real danger wouldn't bother him. Which makes him nervous. Heh heh.

Meanwhile, the Deviants are trying to blast away at the forcefield, but it's having no effect. They keep pouring more power into it, but it has no effect. So, what's their solution? MORE POWER!

Ikaris manages to get his hands on Kro. The Eternal powerhouse gets his hands on Kro's neck and starts to give him the Homer Simpson treatment.

As he gets choked, Kro imagines Ghaur laughing at him, laughing over how he managed to get rid of Kro, his greatest nuisance. Luckily, for the pink-skinned warlord, he has a savior. 

Jim Ross: "BAH GAWD, KING! THAT JEZEBEL THENA!"

Thena saves Kro, and says she will kill anyone who harms him. While the other Eternals are dumbfounded by this, a robed figure strikes. 

"BY THE GODS, MY SPLEEN! I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE SHOCKED THERE!"

Yeah, because of the coloring, I couldn't tell if it was one of Ghaur's priests or the green-robed figure. I'm assuming it was the green-robed figure because it doesn't look like one of the Priests' robes. One of the Deviant soldiers picks up the phial Kro dropped. Thena wails and holds Kro's body. Both the Deviants and Eternals decide to withdraw. But there's another surprise. Kro is not quite dead. He tells Thena to teleport now. She does so, and Khoryphos leaves as well, seemingly to pursue them. Both sides are left fuming at this whole thing. The story ends with the green-robed figure watching this in satisfaction. All the players are in place. There's still work to do, but so far, things are going as they should... 

I did enjoy this issue, although I feel that it's one of those issues that's better read as part of a whole story than as a single issue. There is plenty of action in this issue, with the ship battle and the fight with Ikaris and Kro. Speaking of Kro, Thena's feelings towards him is one of the centers of this issue. It's very clear that this, combined with her unresolved grief regarding Zuras, is affecting her ability to lead. 

It does give the idea that such tragedy is so rare among the Eternals that they don't know how to really deal with it. After all, Eternals are immortal. They can killed, but it's just very difficult to actually do. So it makes sense that part of Thena's struggle is the very idea that she can lose someone she loves. It makes her betrayal to aid Kro make more sense. She fears losing him, too. She's honestly the most fascinating character in this maxi-series so far. I do wish the issue touched a bit more on Kro's rebellion in Lemuria. It gave some complexity to the Deviants, and it does feel like the rebellion is an afterthought.

I don't really have any complaints about Sal Buscema's art. It's perfectly fine. Although I would have loved to see how Jack Kirby himself would have done this, though. 

If you wish to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2020 trade paperback The Eternals: The Dreaming Celestial Saga. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves, and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!