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Post by jmisbest on Dec 9, 2021 20:22:09 GMT
In my opinion Eye of The Dragon is only(?) the 5th most disappointing of The 70 or so Regular Books in the series, but we are allowed our opinions. What do you think of The 4 FF Books that in my opinion are worse then Eye of The Dragon? In 4th place is Phantoms of Fear but only if your trying to win with Power not Artefacts, in 3rd place is Sorcery Book 4 but only if your playing as A Warrior, in 2nd place is Black Vein Prophecy and in 1st place is Blood of The Zombies Aside from Blood I would think most FF fans would say those works were average or below-average but not 'worst', but it's all subjective. Hands up any FF can who likes Starship Traveller (as written)? I prefer the power route through Phantoms Of Fear, but then I like the Bravestone (has Jumanji entered pop culture? It has now!) harder route through Sword Of The Samurai, which many FF readers deeply dislike. Strangely enough back in the very late 90's I loved Starship Traveller, but nowadays I hate, loathe and despite it and even though I can't remember what actually caused such a drastic change in my opinion of Starship Traveller something did
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 9, 2021 21:13:51 GMT
Eye - 7/14/7 Things were going well until I lost 2 skill and got teleported into a prison cell. From there I ran into a giant spider and it killed me.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 0:18:38 GMT
Eye - 8/14/7 I made quite a bit of progress but an uglukk orc knocked my skill down which left me unable to fight off a pair of thieves.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 1:32:21 GMT
Eye - 9/14/7 Most of the fights in this book are actually quite reasonable. This is an exception. Even with Littlebig's attempts to help, the 12/12 double damage dealing gargantus was rather quickly victorious over me.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 3:32:27 GMT
Eye - 10/14/7 Littlebig hit the gargantus once which was more than I did. Eye - 11/14/7 I hit it twice. At this rate, I'll have it dead in 4 more attempts.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 8:06:53 GMT
Eye - 12/14/7 Okay, I was 1 hit away from killing it. I think once this thing goes down. it's a clear run to the end.
Eye - 13/14/7 Sure enough, the gargantus finally falls and I casually walk to the exit from there.
Well, that was pretty mediocre. Now I sail into uncharted waters, all the books from here on I've skimmed at best. Apparently Jonathan Green had one last mean book left in him before he softened so Bloodbones might be rough.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 19:59:13 GMT
Bloodbones - 7/14/7/14 A really quick one! The pirates at the start softened me up and then the half-ogre killed me easily.
Bloodbones - 8/14/7/14 I got the half-ogre down to 1 stamina but still ended up dying.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 21:03:03 GMT
Bloodbones - 9/14/7/14 I made it a little bit further but died to Crivens and his monkey.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 10, 2021 23:37:32 GMT
Bloodbones - 10/14/7/14 I failed a luck test and missed a keyword.
Bloodbones - 10/14/8/14 Champskees seems to only use one of the three gas globes he suggests you buy so I used one of them on the great white shark. This allowed me to win within the time limit and make it to Captain Velyarde. I got him down to 2 stamina but he still won the fight.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 5:32:56 GMT
Bloodbones - 11/14/8/14 I failed a luck roll at the start.
Bloodbones - 11/14/9/14 Another failed luck test, I don't manage to follow the smugglers stealthily enough and get caught.
Bloodbones - 11/14/10/14 A double six on the luck roll sees me miss a clue once again.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 7:29:19 GMT
Bloodbones - 11/14/11/14 In what can only be described as insanely bad luck, I actually died to some vampire bats. Yes, I had a 6 skill advantage but the first bat managed to not only tie two rounds, it won one. So the passive damage from the other 2 bats left me in such a bad state that I couldn't kill the second bat before I died.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 9:26:12 GMT
It was passive damage that killed me last time so sadly, just a 1 stamina increase this time around.
Bloodbones - 11/15/11/14 I had to roll two dice four times and never roll a double. The second roll was a double 2.
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Post by philsadler on Dec 11, 2021 10:24:20 GMT
Man. These 'roll or die' mechanics are not good design. I mean, what are the odds of throwing a double on two dice: 16%? I think.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 10:32:38 GMT
Yeah, it's 1 in 6. By my maths, the chance of passing 4 of them in a row is about 48%. So hopefully a reroll or two will be enough to get me through.
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Post by philsadler on Dec 11, 2021 10:51:32 GMT
So in other words it's an (unavoidable?) 50/50 roll regardless of stats or items collected?
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 11:00:39 GMT
Bloodbones - 11/15/11/14 - 1 reroll Some more insane bad luck. I died to the wreckers but every fight had me taking a beating, they just finished me off. Bloodbones - 12/15/11/14 - 1 reroll Test my luck against 11, easy. If only, the dreaded box cars showed up and ended my run right at the start. Bloodbones - 12/15/12/14 - 1 reroll Man, the dice really hate me. I need to pass a skill check, adding one to the number I roll. Anything but a 12 and I'm fine. Guess what I rolled.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 11:02:59 GMT
So in other words it's an (unavoidable?) 50/50 roll regardless of stats or items collected? Correct! I have to say I enjoy the book but the gameplay is Crypt of the Sorcerer levels of frustrating.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 20:19:37 GMT
Bloodbones - 13/15/12/14 - 1 reroll Fourteenth time the charm! Let's go! *sigh* Let's go fall off a ledge. I roll a double 1, use my reroll and get a double 6.
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Post by philsadler on Dec 11, 2021 21:19:24 GMT
I see that Bloodbones is giving Spellbreaker a run for its money.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 21:50:28 GMT
Bloodbones - 13/15/12/14 - 2 rerolls I needed a reroll but I did make it through the "no doubles" gauntlet! And after that I was sufficiently overpowered from failing all the previous skill tests that I had no trouble for the entire rest of the book. Well, that was brutal. I sure hope there's no more Jonathan Green books for a while...
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 21:52:44 GMT
I see that Bloodbones is giving Spellbreaker a run for its money. Spellbreaker wins a narrow victory 16-15 for most attempts required. Looks like Crypt's difficulty is over rated. It's now been demoted to equal third with Seas of Blood at 13.
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 11, 2021 22:03:06 GMT
I see that Bloodbones is giving Spellbreaker a run for its money. The number of runs terrysalt takes is as dependent on his luck exactly as it is on the difficulty as we both know. Spellbreaker might be mission impossible but it is mathematically a touch easier than Crypt, and Bloodbones is closer in terms of it's difficulty to TOC than MOM. What terrysalt's playthrough illustrates is how unfair 50-50 and do-or-die rolls are; the voluntary fails (BVP in particular) are another dimension, as well.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 11, 2021 23:22:41 GMT
Howl - 8/12/7/8 Even though the fights aren't especially difficult, I still got killed by a black werewolf.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 12, 2021 2:46:41 GMT
Howl - 9/12/7/8 My first cool werewolf power was... taking 4 damage. Lucky me! The second one made up for it, an extra point of initial and current skill. From 9/12 to 12/16, why am I trying to get cured again? But get cured is exactly what I did. That was remarkably easy compared to the last few books I've done! Well, I don't know who wrote this or what they did to Jonathan Green but pod person Jon Green is great!
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Dec 12, 2021 3:57:29 GMT
Eye - 7/14/7 Things were going well until I lost 2 skill and got teleported into a prison cell. From there I ran into a giant spider and it killed me. Somehow this sounds like the life of a Victorian criminal.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 12, 2021 4:15:08 GMT
I'm in New South Wales but close enough.
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Post by CharlesX on Dec 12, 2021 5:39:05 GMT
Howl - 9/12/7/8 My first cool werewolf power was... taking 4 damage. Lucky me! The second one made up for it, an extra point of initial and current skill. From 9/12 to 12/16, why am I trying to get cured again? But get cured is exactly what I did. That was remarkably easy compared to the last few books I've done! Well, I don't know who wrote this or what they did to Jonathan Green but pod person Jon Green is great! So, you won't be bothering wi the completist, kill all the bosses route, then?
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 12, 2021 6:07:21 GMT
Given the structure of this gamebook, I will obviously not end a playthrough just for dying. Night - 7/14/7 Death 1 was against a pair of dread knights. Death 2 was when Unthank banished me. Despite those minor setbacks, I ended up winning first try. Once I got to take control of a skill 12 stamina 20 body, it was almost trivially easy. I like Podathan Green much more than his human counterpart. One more of his books then the series takes a bit of a dive.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 12, 2021 6:16:34 GMT
Howl - 9/12/7/8 My first cool werewolf power was... taking 4 damage. Lucky me! The second one made up for it, an extra point of initial and current skill. From 9/12 to 12/16, why am I trying to get cured again? But get cured is exactly what I did. That was remarkably easy compared to the last few books I've done! Well, I don't know who wrote this or what they did to Jonathan Green but pod person Jon Green is great! So, you won't be bothering wi the completist, kill all the bosses route, then? I saw that there was a guide for one but I don't really see a reason to. I've always just gone with the easiest path to victory.
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Post by terrysalt on Dec 12, 2021 10:54:28 GMT
Stormslayer - 7/14/7/14 I think human Jon might have been in charge of this one. I died pretty quickly to an eerieside beast.
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