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[Haylee]

Stellar Seas by Russ, Moosh

 

 

 

Ether suggested I put a MushRush quest on my list since no one else had one, and there weren't many 2.55 quests in the queue, so I figured this might be a good pick to show off some newer engine features for those still mentally in 2.53.

 

This has actually been on my radar for a little bit now. There's like, a whole era of ZC I kind of sidestepped in favor of roads less traveled, and it made me miss many of the bigger quests on the database. Looking forward to this one.

 

The Discord Thread can be found here. Here's to a good month!

[Haylee]

Session 1, and uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

 

going over things here will actually be a bit tougher. This quest is more overworld than it is dungeon, so I have to tackle my feelings on that front, and the gameplay loop here is very different from the usual ZC quest. The upgrade system is neat, and being able to choose who you invest in is always gonna be interesting.

 

I'm particularly bad about reading in ZC in particular, so I've kinda been struggling a bit on appreciating the characters super well on the writing side (but the cutscene work is good, and that bit is charming, and the little handshake animation between Asher and Torrin went hard.). As a result, how these characters resonate with me is primarily gonna be on a gameplay front, and they do actually feel good on that front! Asher is a fairly basic sword guy, but exclusive access to dash lets him stand out as fairly effective outside of being a simple melee fighter. Torrin is really fun, and his clear character inspiration gave me a massive chuckle, and any character with an RNG type mechanic is gonna feel very fun to me, he's hilarious. Kaylani seems to be a neat risk reward character, who has been the one who I've had the most fun using so far. I've been told her mechanics seem to make her much weaker than the other two, and while I'm definitely seeing it, she's still incredibly fun to use.

 

Overworld exploration has been good so far. There's a wild amount of secrets to choose from, and they make for a very good gameplay loop. The prologue dungeon and the first real dungeon are both fairly good, and solving the puzzles in the first real dungeon felt good. The dungeon item in particular was very entertaining to mess with, and it's a very entertaining take on bombs. I also did a ton of side content, as well as a side dungeon, and a number of optional bosses. It's just an overall very fun set of areas to explore.

 

Looking forward to more! I'll think of more things to say as I go, but first impressions are very good.

[Haylee]

Session 2 end with the beginning of the 2nd act, and there's a lot of interesting stuff to talk about here! I played 3 dungeons this time around, and got very sidetracked in a section of the overworld I was not supposed to be at quite yet, which was quite entertaining.

 

Of the 3 main dungeons, the Deepsea Mine was more or less the main event, as that dungeon ends with a cool plot spoiler! It's a great dungeon overall, with an item and puzzles that I struggled just a bit to wrap my head around, but is overall very cool in the grand scheme of things. Selet Manor was also a fun dungeon as well, and so was the side dungeon I did, Overgrown Passage. This was just a pleasant batch of dungeons all around.

 

Spoiler

Frankly, I find the concept of removing your starting character from a party in any sort of environment super fun, and an easy mechanical way to get me more hooked on the writing.

 

I actually did get a fair bit more invested here. I think what this quest does with its characters as it goes on is pretty interesting, and I look forward to seeing what direction is taken with them.

 

This is a little less verbose of an update, since a lot of what I could say was already said in the previous post. I'm having fun, and look forward to more!

[Haylee]

This was a very hefty session, I did a side dungeon, the Jungle Temple, as well as a main dungeon, Mauna Poho. I did an absolute truckload of sidecontent once again, to the point that I'm pretty sure for where I am, I've done pretty much everything outside of Hymnstone upgrades.

 

The character differences are really becoming more and more pronounced. I'm struggling to make Kaylani work without Sundog, but I'm seeing pockets of potential where she can be insanely useful. With that said, it's a shame or other skill, the Solar Flare, seems to be actually pretty bad, as the damage overtime is just overall improbable to do effectively, do the point that her other risk options seem outright better on that front. With that said, the item you get in Mauna Poho actually helps her significantly, and I wanna see more of what she can do with the help of that. Ash has finally come into his own, as a melee heavy dash-out-of-danger character, who, even if he's a little boring for my tastes, feels good to play and I think most people playing the quest will find him to be the most effective party member. Torrin this session, meanwhile has completely begun to pull his own weight as an insanely good boss killer, with his lock on ability genuinely making bosses significantly easier. His big item does require ammo, but even with the bombs being universal, the lock on inadvertently makes him the best character to actually use them. I'm really still enjoying using all 3, but holy hell, Torrin is really insane in the right conditions.

 

Jungle Temple was a fun dungeon with a cool gimmick, that elevated it to being quite memorable. It's a little rough in terms of how much you have to redo when you die, but it's otherwise a good pace changer. Mauna Poho meanwhile is an excellent lategame dungeon that I think checks the players skill really well. Navigation felt rewarding, and I found myself, enjoying all the story stuff surrounding the dungeon. The dungeon item as well is really damn fun to use and I think that's always nice.

 

I'm really looking forward to next session. This quest has been a treat so far.

[Haylee]

 

i beat it im going to bed i have work in the morning

[Haylee]

So I never actually gave my thoughts. I should probably do that!

 

That final dungeon was incredible. It was really fun to explore, and it aesthetically had a lot of cool stuff going on. The dungeon item also finally gave me what I felt was missing with Asher's kit to make him feel whole, and he became fun to use from that point forward. He's still my least favorite character to play as, due to his relatively simple gameplay, but he's still fun. Torrin's gameplay continued to impress me, until he completely carried the final fight on his back and that's when it clicked for me. As a party member, he rules. Kaylani also managed to finally click near the end. While I still think Sundog is a little overtuned, and her beam attack just kinda sucks and doesn't synergize well with the rest of her kit at all, her basic attack and Solar Flare syngergize beautifully in the right circumstances, allowing for a tool kit that allows her to residually do damage, while dodging to charge for a much stronger attack. She's really fun, and still the most rewarding character to use to me (As well as my favorite), even if I think Torrin is both incredibly fun, as well as the best character in the game.

 

The final boss as a whole is pretty excellent. It took me quite a long while to beat him, but his patterns are recognizable enough, that there's actually not a ton of RNG to the fight, which I appreciate a lot. It generally felt like most of my deaths were my fault, and it kept me invested throughout the whole fight. It asks you to learn each character's toolset a lot, and I even learned a ton fighting the boss. Visually, it's also one of the coolest fights I've seen in ZC. All in all, it's an excellent final fight to cap off the quest.

 

I do plan, for the sake of QC, on giving the postgame at least one session. If I'm enjoying it enough, I will more than likely be finishing up the postgame out of QC.