There's another tradition. I call it a "retrospective," but it's basically a memorial post dedicated all the good people who've played and enjoyed a game over the years. I used to write them at chapter ends, but I don't have time anymore. And, since I've finally killed off the last loose threads of this story, it's a good time to catch up with all the things we did and didn't see throughout 2-3+ threads.
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Hey! What're you doing in here? You're not my grandson, and you sure as the rising sun aren't hairy enough to be a Kong! Oh, huh? You say you wanna hear the story of Mushroom Kingdom Wars? When I was a chimp, we kids were patient. Now you want a whole book fed to you in the time it takes to suck a sucker!Oh, hush, you old coot. I'm gonna start with the characters because they were the central component of the game.
Bradley and Oomph
Undeniably the mascots of the game, they've appeared in multiple forum games now. Oftentimes when Dwarmin and SeriousConcentrate roleplay together, it seems like the stuff of olden tragedy epics. However, it's a testament to their chemistry and master of the written word that they kept these characters funny and interesting throughout the course of the game.
Bradley and Oomph were most definitely my favorite characters, and I hated to see Oomph go. Even when no one else was roleplaying, I quite enjoyed their constant banter. It kept the thread alive and spirits high.
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He fudged the six-ers to keep 'em going!NO U. Okay, once for Bradley.
It was quite entertaining how Bradley and Oomph chose polarized magick fields over the course of the game. Oomph was the least likely character to take up White Magic, but it was more the fault of the original game system (Koopas being magic-specialized despite Oomph's smashy personality). Bradley, of course, was the team's Black Mage, and he certainly had his moments of badass as well.
Bradley's shyness was a pretty major part of his character, and even though he never quite overcame it, who says he needed to? Multiple times over the course of the story, Bradley's shyness allowed him to go undetected while pulling off one of his magic schemes. Oomph ended up bringing out the best in his ghost buddy despite this.
Zachary, the gods and the Origin
This is the part of the story I regret most. To put it simplest: about a year ago from the story's perspective, Zachary had a chance encounter with a chaos god in disguide at a place called the Tower of Heaven. The chaos god thought he was the current avatar of the god of balance, but he was wrong. There was some stuff about the Photon Star and blah blah no one really even cares, but suffice to say that Zachary's battle with Xenos ended with the Photon Star being used to power the centuries old facilities in the Tower of Heaven (and Zachary's ass getting kicked).
In Luigi Quest, we found out (through Past Luigi) that the Tower of Heaven's Power Star-draining machine was the original cause of the Origin. The Power Stars held the fabric of reality together, and the constant drain on them ripped open a hole into the Neverwas. We saw Past Grimtoad close this hole (the Origin) and seal it in the Shadow Star, but the re-opening of the Origin was the real start to the heroes' journey.
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SNRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrr...Anyway, even with all the railroading I put poor Zachary through, he was a fun character. He roleplayed a lot and was interested in the "why" of the world. There was hints Zako was even trying to figure out what the heck was going on, but I'd written too much backstory, and attempting to communicate it to him without spoiling everything broke things further.
The gods were a somewhat irrelevant part of the story overall. They played heavily into
Queen's backstory (and the red-and-black robes Crank found were a shout out to that). They were also heavily cliche. Din died trying to escape the Sacred Realm, Farore was a bubblehead, Nayru had no character, the Balancer just hated talking and Xenos was a troll. I'm glad I didn't continue with them.
Zachary had the potential to be an even better character, but I destroyed that potential by making him play the way I wanted him to. That sucked, and I apologize to Zako. I've learned from it.
Joe, Amadeus, Taric, Etc.
The "non-roleplaying characters" were a pretty fun part of the story because there wasn't anything about them I could turn into crappy plot/backstory. Except, oh wait, I totally did that with Taric. Oops.
Either way, their generic heroesness deserves a salute. *salute*
Ochita and the shadows
I'm not sure what to say, really. Ochita is Ochita, and a part of this that I regret is constantly co-oping with him on the game. Yeah, it was fun, but talking to him about plot and game mechanics not only spoiled his gameplay but also continued to make it all too complicated. Sorry, Ochita.
Ochita the character was halfway fun to play. Much like Fuzz, he started roleplaying more after his re-introduction. Speaking of which...
Fuzz and Grimtoad
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'E fails the Mary Sue Litmus Test!Fuzz was a good idea for a character. Grimtoad was not. Making Grimtoad be Zelda All Along was not a good idea, either.
We really didn't get that much characterization from Fuzz after he left. His brief appearance in Luigi Quest was kind of funny, but I pretty much turned him into "adorable guy with chronic loyalty and low INT score."
Dirk and Crank
I enjoyed both characters. CJ and Toaster both have very sharp wits, and it's too bad we didn't have more time for them to really come alive.
I don't think any other characters are particularly important to the game. I was going to write stuff about what I've learned writing-wise, art-wise, mechanic-wise, etc... but none of that really matters. What matters is that I continue to improve and use this RTD as the launch pad where I made all the big mistakes and learned a ton.
The Bay 12 Nintendo Series must go on. Not now, not soon, maybe not until I'm drinking age and have enough liquor in me to be a philosopher. But it will be back because Nintendo games are a part of our culture, forum games are a part of this community and all of you hold a special place in my heart.
Until then...
So long, a-Bowser!
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Topic: Mushroom Kingdom Wars RTD: So long, a-bowser! (Read 223376 times)