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Post by axelf on Aug 11, 2020 17:57:10 GMT
***Spoiler Alert***
I am probably missing something here but wasn't clear on why
"Your ears are ringing" at the end? Is it just because they were ringing at the beginning of the book?
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Post by Wilf on Aug 11, 2020 18:38:11 GMT
In 344 child-you sees present-you in a glass globe. If child-you shouts a warning to present-you (turn to 373), the echo of your voice reverberates throughout the room (and also throughout time, as present-you can hear it) causing your ears to ring.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 11, 2020 19:19:51 GMT
Knowing what you know as an adult and experiencing the legacy of your father's tyrannical rule, when you eventually face him again, you re-experience your childhood up to the events that lead to being put into the sarcophagus. As a child this appears to only be the source of a nightmare but suggests that you are foreseeing your own destiny. When you come to look into the crystal ball, that knowledge becomes familiar to the point that you can affect how your destiny plays out. You recognize the figure in the crystal ball as yourself grown up and can shout a warning that echoes through time. The reverberation created by your shouting makes your ears ring. The warning you hear as an adult is from yourself making you turn to greet it in time to see the diving Sturramak and dodge away at the last second. The Sturramak cannot stop itself and crashes into your father's spirit, thus evil destroys itself. With Feior also defeated you put an end to your father's evil legacy and redeem yourself by ruling with a good heart.
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Post by tyrion on Aug 21, 2020 21:09:30 GMT
I've just played through this again and wished I wasn't so harsh when voting in previous rounds. This is really well thought out with an intriguing plot. I think the naming of items put me off initially (small jar vs orange syrup, scroll being soggy etc) but having got over that, it actually plays really well. Just a shame about the failed luck test.
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sylas
Baron
"Don't just adventure for treasure; treasure the adventure!"
Posts: 1,677
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy, Way of the Tiger
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Post by sylas on Aug 21, 2020 21:38:18 GMT
I've just played through this again and wished I wasn't so harsh when voting in previous rounds. This is really well thought out with an intriguing plot. I think the naming of items put me off initially (small jar vs orange syrup, scroll being soggy etc) but having got over that, it actually plays really well. Just a shame about the failed luck test. Welcome to the believers club
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Post by Wilf on Aug 22, 2020 3:12:01 GMT
I think the naming of items put me off initially (small jar vs orange syrup, scroll being soggy etc). Agreed. The fragment becoming a splinter at the end, too. There's a few little niggles in BVP, but they don't detract that much from the quality of the writing, the detailed and imaginative worldbuilding, and the envelope-pushing ambition of the story. Some gamebooks make great games; some (like BVP) make great books. Strangely, it's the latter that I find more replayable.
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Post by tyrion on Oct 3, 2020 18:57:37 GMT
One thing I've never found (although I'm aware it's bad if you do) is the Bejewelled Box. Any ideas where it is? Just curious as I thought I'd explored a lot of this book.
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Post by Wilf on Oct 3, 2020 20:16:59 GMT
One thing I've never found (although I'm aware it's bad if you do) is the Bejewelled Box. Any ideas where it is? Just curious as I thought I'd explored a lot of this book. 319. If you and Velkos join the bandits and rob the merchant, he tries to hold on to it. Not for the first time in BVP, it's something you need to be Unlucky to acquire (but rightly so in this case).
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Post by tyrion on Oct 3, 2020 21:47:31 GMT
One thing I've never found (although I'm aware it's bad if you do) is the Bejewelled Box. Any ideas where it is? Just curious as I thought I'd explored a lot of this book. 319. If you and Velkos join the bandits and rob the merchant, he tries to hold on to it. Not for the first time in BVP, it's something you need to be Unlucky to acquire (but rightly so in this case).
Thanks wilf. I must have either let him keep it or been lucky then!
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Post by vastariner on Nov 20, 2020 9:24:53 GMT
Something about this one that I'm not sure has been noted before.
First few times I played it, and, indeed, first time I completed it, I didn't get one of the spells.
I think every time you use that spell, it backfires.
It also happens to be a spell whose sole effect is destruction. Every other spell is either neutral (Biantai always seems to have sinister effect but it is easy to imagine scenarios where it is not) or ostensibly reversible.
Am sure that that is a deliberate twist.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Aug 3, 2021 19:14:42 GMT
If this question has been asked before and answered then apologies. But can someone take me through the logic of spell and counter-spell in the wizard duel against Feior? It felt quite trial-and-error.
His [red] disruption spell is countered by locking. (why would 'harmonisation', a sort of opposite of 'disruption', not work here?) his [purple] mutation spell is countered by harmonization and when he's tired why is mutation [biantai] the one that works on him? I understand that blasting him to atoms with baopo is too destructive and will have you go back to your evil roots, but isn't biantai quite terrible too? Look what it does to the bandits and bathers! Won't it merge him into the rock or something?
Did I miss clues earlier in the book? Is it something to do with the colours?
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Post by vastariner on Aug 3, 2021 20:07:11 GMT
There is a clue that Feior is about to launch Baopo. What spell can you launch back? You're too late to cast your own Baopo, Biantai is difficult to cast and won't hit Feior in time, and Tiaohe will not do any good as it calms you down when you want to be acting quickly. You basically want to Lock the fireball coming at you in the air.
Tiaohe countering Biantai works because Biantai is a spell that wrenches the mind - so you want a calm mind to avoid the spell's effect.
Biantai does threaten to blend Feior with the rock, but only loosely. Because Feior is a more powerful sorcerer (he had longer to absorb the sigils at the start) but a more arrogant one. So, given that he has launched two energy-sapping spells, he still has just about enough to avoid the full effects of Biantai but not enough to dismiss it completely. And at that point he is a sitting duck.
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Sept 16, 2021 19:19:17 GMT
Two of my children, both of them more or less original target age (and above) for FF books had some playthroughs of BVP together and here are some unsystemised and disorganised points from me on what they said about it and what stood out. Choices made and why, and various thoughts.
They felt a strong sense of urgency at the start. Got out of the collapsing chambers as soon as possible and didn’t stop to look at the statues. [Having not played all the early gamebooks they don’t necessarily have the built-in ‘search-every-inch-of-every-room-in-case-you-miss-an-object’ mentality that *I* had when I first played this book (and when I was convinced the shield was essential)].
They rolled 1 for LUCK! This was greeted with groans! (but with an inner smile by me and me urging them not to be disheartened) But then rolled 6 for the [infamous] luck test so avoiding the multicoloured scales. This was greeted with joy!
There was a sense of relief at getting out of the collapsing underground tomb.
In the deserted city, they distrusted the gate as a safe exit. Thoughts on the mutant - glad they got the mutation power from the creature but didn’t go any further with it. The textual warning of the sense of unease around the horse/rider hybrid worked. There were a number of clues like this getting noticed throughout the book, actually.
They worked out Thandile was a tomb-robber.
They took to Velkos, trusted her and decided to fall asleep, failed the luck roll and so missed her dishonest/curious act of searching the character to ‘find out about them’ – or rather to rob them of the Izhkao locket. In fact this attempted theft sequence was cleverly done – they thought the failed LUCK test meant they simply didn’t obtain something – they had no idea something had gone missing. On making it to shore they were keen to stick with Velkos and not give her away (hidden up a tree) when the bandits turned up.
They were unsure of the bandits from the start and had a sense of getting further and further involved in something they didn’t want to be a part of when encouraged to rob the merchant. They left him his box more out of pity than sensing a trap. And they were glad to be rid of the bandits in Credas’ cave.
They instinctively trusted Credas – as a wizard and someone who apparently knew who they were. In fact this sense of wanting to stick with companions may have been a direct result of the amnesia - they didn't know who they were and so looked to others to help them.
On the initial play-through, there were big chunks missed – no power of Disruption, no Izkhao, no Merzei.
They tried to follow Credas’ quest but when they came to the jungle thought it too dangerous (you are given a clue in the text about the strong currents in the river) and turned back, went up into the hills and were slain by Feior’s army. Lots of question marks over heads at this point!
On being asked at the end of the first playthrough ‘What do you think of that then?’, the answer was ‘weird!’ [in a good way]
For the second attempt I told them the LUCK roll needed to be failed. This was met with disbelief and knitted brows.
They escaped as before, gained the power of Biantai (Mutation), this time kept awake and so didn’t get robbed by Velkos of the locket. Fought the slavers and their opinion of Velkos changed radically in light of her dismissal of the plight of the cressent young getting hunted. As a result of this they did not follow her any more. Decided not to run from the polybleb (they decided flight wasn’t helping those slavers who were getting vaporised) and so got the Disruption Baopo spell.
I noticed another clever point in the construction of the book – KNOWING that the luck score is probably going to be low for a successful player, there is an option to NOT test for luck when the shael beast picks you up.
Other clues got noticed – eg Merzei has a scroll on him when he’s haranguing the bathers. This is a clue that he is the one who overpowered the soldier with the scroll in his mouth. This (as well as his words about looking after the poor and downtrodden) in turn is another reason to support him against the mob. But in fact taking that scroll out is a sort of delayed death-paragraph really – because the chances of overcoming that soldier in battle are very low.
Cheat-mode got deployed for the wizard duel with Feior.
Eldest liked the book, noticing 'The book is not throwing combat at us all the time' and that 'It doesn’t feel linear'.
Overall they enjoyed the book, but the older one appreciated it more than the younger.
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IoannesKantakouzenos
Traveller
Being slowly eaten alive by a Ghoul
Posts: 105
Favourite Gamebook Series: Fighting Fantasy (Aventuras Fantásticas)
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Post by IoannesKantakouzenos on Mar 27, 2024 21:32:57 GMT
I have a (somewhat) silly question: who is supposed to be the man "you" "have known and respected in the past" in (347)? My pea-brain fails a bit to understand what happens at the beginning and relate it to the final part of the story… shame, shame, shame.
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