Let's Play MagiNation

[Peanut]

Yes, I'm doing another LP. Don't worry, I'll still be doing work on my Emerald Nuzlocke but, with the closing down of Nintendo Power, I figured I'd go ahead and LP the first game that magazine convinced me to buy which was Magi Nation. Perhaps the best Gameboy Color game you never played.

What is Magi Nation?

Long ago, around the year 2000 (probably a bit before...I don't know when they started development on the game), a company named Interactive Imagination took a look around and said "Hey, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh are making a ton of money. We like money lets do something similar!" With that, they set out to create a card game featuring humans summoning monsters called Dream Creatures. The card game was called Magi Nation and it was shamelessly an attempt to cash in on the success of those two franchises. To advertise this, they made a Gameboy Color game that shared the same title and released in March of 2001. The game was your typical Pokemon clone except, in many ways, it was vastly superior to the game it was copying. In fact, I would say that Magi Nation is a vastly superior RPG then Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal without any hesitation. The game was graphically superior to Pokemon in every way (I mean just look at that title screen!), contained a system that was as deep as Pokemon, a world that was pretty interesting to explore filled with secrets and character, and, most importantly, had a good plot with some funny writing and a likable main character. The game was good enough (or Interactive Imagination's wallets deep enough) to get NP to include coverage for it that spanned over two issues (coincidentally the first two issues of Nintendo Power I got) and serves as a guide for the majority of the game. That's pretty good for a Pokemon clone trying to find its place in a market that was getting somewhat crowded.

So, of course, it failed miserably. The GBC game sold ok enough to get a sequel at least into development called Magi Nation: Keeper's Quest but it was never released on the GBC and, instead, was released on various PDA systems. A CGI TV show was planned but then never came out. The card game ran on for a little while in the US before going belly up but continued on for a few more years in Japan. A GBA remake was released in Japan but it too failed to be very successful and contained a rather interesting change in the design of the main character, Tony Jones (American Tony, Japan Tony...yeah different). Then, six years past...

And it was bought by another company. Seems great right, I mean its getting resurrected and hey there's a TV show planned! Sweet, a part of my childhood might actually be--a massive betrayal of the original. I don't know if anyone on CAA saw Magi Nation when it was running on TV but, to quote the Magi Nation wikia, it is "the single most controversial Magi-Nation related topic in the present day." Basically, they displayed a complete misunderstanding of the original source material in the least respectful of ways. As a business decision I get it, I mean no one in the target demographic for that show had probably even heard of the GBC game or the card game, but it could have been done better. I have only seen one episode to be fair so I can't really criticize it too much and hey, it supposedly ran for 3 seasons and created a spin-off MMO that exists. Granted its terrible and no where near as good as the GBC game but hey, its a thing...

So yeah, Magi Nation is one of those IPs that's had a pretty tough life filled with corporate meddling and just bizarre decisions. So we're mostly going to just focus on the good thing in it which was the Gameboy Color game.

How is this LP going to work

This is going to be closer to my now dead Heroes of Might and Magic LPs in that I'm going to be focusing more on how the game works and plays and all that stuff. I'll be getting into a bit more detail on how the game works as well as some things related to the quality of each Dream Creature. All stat rankings, forumla's and most of the tier lists I mention are taken from http://magination.wikia.com/wiki/Magi-Nation_Wiki. I will also be summarizing mos of the story related scenes throughout this LP.

What?! You're summarizing the story?!

Yep. Magi Nation has a very good plot but because of the limits of the Gameboy Color, its told two lines at a time with a moderately slow scroll speed. Given CAA's 10 image per post limit, its not practical for me to post every single screenshot for each bit of dialogue. I'll, instead, post a few screenshots from each scene (some more then others) and give you the gist of what's going on. If you want to get the full plot experience, you'll just have to buy and play the game yourself.

Dream Creature Profiles and You

Throughout the LP I'll be posting a brief profile for each Dream Creature. I'll likely be doing this for each area that you can enter since that'll just make things easier to keep track of. Each of these profiles will contain the following information.

Name
Link to a Picture of the Gameboy Color Sprite
Tier
Recommended by NP?
My Tier
Stat Sum Rank
HP Rank
Strength Rank
Defense Rank
Speed Rank
Skill Rank
Resist Rank

The stat rankings are based on the average for each Dream Creature once they reach level 60. I've chosen to give the rankings for each stat instead of the actual numbers for them mostly because I think it gives a better idea of how good the Dream Creature is compared to the others around them. A Dream Creature with a rank of say 22 in Health means that there are at least 21 Dream Creatures who have higher health then it at level 60. The Recommended by NP section tells you if Nintendo Power recommended getting the creature within their own guide. I've included it because for the longest time, those two issues of Nintendo Power were what I used to guide me through this game and because it provides a different perspective on each creature.

Tiers

There are two tier lists I am using. The first is from Magi Nation wiki by AKFrost and is meant for your first playthrough of Magi Nation. I'll use his own words to describe each ranking he uses.

Perfect-Goes without saying.

Top- Just a tad short of perfect. Usable in every way.

Megathan- High stats, but mindnumbingly low skill and speed, combined with a usually mainly elemental nuke spread.

Good- Stands out amongst the regular crap you plow through every day.

Wasted- Lacks the proper abilities/stats to make use of its high stats/good abilities.

Gimmick- Has some interesting characteristics you might want to try out, but generally poor.

Negligible- Just there to fill up space.

I created my own tier list based mostly off of this list. It is flawed because, really, the Megathan tier is a descriptor for a set of Dream Creatures that range from Top to Wasted but share a similar stat profile. Still, it avoids some of the negative language from this Tier list and is simpler to understand. My Tier list is

Perfect- Yes, it does exist and this creature embodies it.

Hyren- A class of monsters of which any would make a good addition to your team.

Top- Worth getting and using until you've filled your team with Hyrens. Occasionally better then certain Hyrens.

Middle- Not bad but not good either. Worth experimenting with or getting if you like the sprite or something.

Bottom- Don't get these Dream Creatures they're terrible.


You can expect the first update sometime later tonight. Probably very quickly after this post.

[Peanut]

All right let's do this thing!


Welcome to Tavel Gorge, a place so boring, the boys entertain themselves by staring in caves!

Actually they are acting like real boys and trying to dare each other into going into the cave. These boys might have names, however I forget them so they shall hence forth be known as older brother and token black kid. Older brother is too scared to go into the cave.


Therefore, being the great friend he is, the token black kid tells him to send his little brother in. Sounds like a fantastic plan!


Being the older brother, the kid agrees and asks his little brother somewhat nicely to go into the cave. Clearly this kid failed older brother school since the proper technique is to throw/force them into the cave. Not ask them nicely. Benny, being a smart kid, tells his older brother no.


The token black kid finds it amusing. Its after all of this that the main character walks into this scene.




Tony Jones introduces himself by stating his full name. As an individual who also posses a first and last name that go better together then apart, I can appreciate Tony's introduction and sympathize with the future he has as being forever known as Tony Jones and not just Tony.


Tony moved here recently, so the problem of who has to go into the cave has been solved. Can't we have a game where being the new kid results in getting super stand powers, dating half the chicks in the school and solving a murder mystery all before going home a year later...wait.


Being the new kid means that you are automatically required to be hazed and bullied. Its RPG logic. In this case, older brother and token black kid call Tony Jones "Foney Bones." See its an insult because they changed the first letter of his first and last name to be slightly sillier sounding then it already wa--yeah bullies in Tavel Gorge kind of suck...


Tony Jones is not impressed with your bullying but relents because he's Tony Jones and really doesn't care what they have to think. Tony, as you will fine, is a deadpan snarker and is more adapt to making fun of silly things then being offended or bothered by them. This makes him better then at least 90% of the other teenage RPG characters out there.


I'd lay off Tony if I were you. Soon he will be able to summon Bears...

[MomentOfInertia]

The link to the pic of American Tony is fouled up, you need to take off the 'http//' .

Other than that; this is rather interesting, carry on.

[Peanut]

[quote="MomentOfInertia (post: 1586513)"]The link to the pic of American Tony is fouled up, you need to take off the 'http//' .

Other than that]

Fixed the link. For some reason I've been doing that a bunch lately. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled Lets Play.


Being the only crystal in this cave, this is our only choice. I guess the kids of Tavel Gorge have gone into this cave a bunch.




Unfortunately for Tony, that was a load bearing crystal and the hole cave begins to collapse around him. See kids, peer pressure is all fun and games until someone gets trapped in a cave in.


Here Tony finds himself suspended above a bottomless chasm after the ground beneath his feet gave way. His last words are not exactly the kind you put on a tombstone. I should note that you can make it pretty close to the entrance of the cave. But, the floor goes out starting from there so you're guaranteed to get caught and fall into this bottomless pit.


The token black kid is the first to hear Tony's screams and cries for help.


Benny acts like he's never seen a cave in before.


The Older brother just blanks out as he realizes that he's going to have a lot of explaining to do to his parents and the parents of the new kid he just pressured into death.

[Peanut]

Magi Nation would be a very boring game if Tony Jones died in the first minute so, of course, he ends up in a mystical world full of wonders and adventures.


Here we see two local inhabitants commenting on the strange creature who fell from the heavens (I'm assuming he fell from the heavens cause anything else would be weird) and crashed into the conveniently placed pool of water a few feet away.


In making first contact with this new being, this one gets lost along the way. Even with their weird language, it is clear that this one is the dumb one of the two.


Now they admire Tony Jones who appears very weird to them. Perhaps they think he's a god or a new snack?


Tony reacts how any teenage boy would react upon waking up in a world that is clearly not your own and being confronted by two rejects from the cast of Lord of the Rings.


However, I don't think these two took his words the way Tony meant them too. Perhaps they thought he had insulted their mother or something like that? Either way, a strange bat like creature has been summoned and is looking to attack Tony when he falls back on the crystal he plucked from that cave and releases a monster of his own.


Thanks to my horrible bit of timing this screenshot, I did not catch Tony's creature in action. So, I hunted down this battle sprite with a lovely green background instead. This is Furok (see I told you Tony would be able to summon bears soon!). Furok is essentially the Charmander/Squirtle/Bulbasaur of this game. He's the first dream creature you get and, not surprisingly, is the one which has always been attached to Tony Jones in every other form of media. Because he's your starter, we might as well take this moment to talk about him as a creature. Just so you know, there are 86 total Dream Creatures in the game

Name: Furok
Tier: Good
Recommended by NP: Yes
My Tier:Top
Stat Sum Rank: 34
HP Rank: 2
Strength Rank: 46
Defense Rank: 24
Speed Rank: 83
Skill Rank: 84
Resist Rank: 18

Furok is a solid Dream Creature. He's got great HP, good defense and Resist and decent strength. His move set is also pretty good and takes advantage of his good Strength score (Strength is used for physical attacks, Skill for elemental but we'll talk more about this later) though the final ability he gets relies on his Skill score. Interestingly enough he gets his strongest attack (Maul which has a 2.5 multiplier to his strength score) at level 15. His speed and Skill are the only downside to him but overall he's good enough to stay in our line up for a while and to be considered a Top tier Dream Creature. Plus he's a bear with antlers and a little blue bird on his head. What's not to love about that?


With his bear summoned, the enemy Dream Creature doesn't last long and soon the individuals who summoned it are running for their lives. Another more human looking person see's them fleeing and approaches Tony. He says...


To this date, this is my favorite line in any Video Game. I don't know what it is but I at least smile every time I see it.

[Peanut]

Realizing that he can't be understood., the local resorts to the universal language known as charades. Unfortunately for him Tony Jones is terrible at charades. He makes some other hilariously random excalamations before giving Tony a bracelet.


Being the young, impressionable kid Tony is, he doesn't question the safety of putting on a bracelet given to him by a strange man in a forest he's never been in whose first words to him were "Exploding Sock Puppet!" Forutnately it wasn't something damaging and was instead a universal translating bracelet. Tony can now understand people!


Yes, yes it was.


Eidon here is local from Vash Naroom, a town built into a bunch of trees nearby. He saw the entire battle and was impressed with how Tony managed to summon a Bear to maul that bat like creature and asks if he can see the ring he used to summon it. Rings in this world are like Pokeballs in Pokemon. You can have ten of them at a time (one for each finger) so by the end of this LP, Tony will have the most bling in Tavel Gorge.


However, Tony has no bling just yet. Instead he just has a hunk of crystal that almost killed him.




This brings us to a point which I'll touch on more later. Basically, the fact that Tony used a crystal to summon that Furok is pretty amazing. It's about this time that Eidon realizes Tony isn't from around here. Tony mentions Tavel Gorge and asks if Eidon knows how to get back there which he responds he doesn't.






Eidon believes that Tavel Gorge is another location in this world that he just isn't aware of so he decides to take Tony to see Vash Naroom's elder whose been everywhere man.

[Peanut]

I found the Soundtrack to Magi Nation recently so I'll be including relevant songs when they are relevant. For best effect, its recommended that you listen to these on repeat for several minutes to truly appreciate how catchy some of these tunes are. Even today, if you were to ask me to hum the overworld music or main battle music from this game I could do it without any reference. Its what happens when you play a game for hours on end and the tracks are somewhat repetitive. Anyway...


Behold! The glorious overworld for the moonland ofNaroom! The overworld maps in this game are one of the few places you can save and don't let you run. However, they give you a great idea of the scope of the world you are in. Also, since we won't be back to that area in a bit, I might as well run down the Dream Creatures which can be obtained in the starting location (called The River). I won't repeat his profile, but this location is one of two locations where you can grind for Furok animite (more on that a bit later). I changed the Sprite link to just the whole wiki page because...some of the pictures of the sprites are a bit on the small side...

Name: Eebit
wiki page
Tier: Gimmick
Recommended by NP?: Nope
My Tier: Middle
Stat Sum Rank: 76
HP Rank: 86
Strength Rank: 78
Defense Rank: 60
Speed Rank: 24
Skill Rank: 28
Resist Rank: 70

The Eebit looks like a rabbit and has the stats of a rabbit. Its fast and has a good skill but has the worst HP in the entire game. Two of their skills (Bite and Pack) rely on their poor strength score to do damage. Their other ability Cute, however, is interesting in that it can cause confusion to enemy dream creatures. Cute is also the final reason I won't be getting an Eebit in this playthrough. Tony Jones only collects grizzled, manly creatures like Furok!

Name: Weebo
wiki page
Tier: Gimmick
Recommended by NP?: Nope
My Tier: Middle
Stat Sum Rank: 83
HP Rank: 69
Strength Rank: 68
Defense Rank: 69
Speed Rank: 69
Skill Rank: 75
Resist Rank: 65

Weebo's are small mushroom like creatures (Magi Nation LOVES mushroom creatures as you will all eventually find out...). Weebo's stats leave something to be desired. There's really nothing good you can say about them. What places them in the tier they are in is their moveset (specifically the last move they learn). They come with Heal which recovers 2-16 energy on Dream Creatures and they can learn Mend (removes statuses) and Spore (inflicts Plauge which is this games version of Poison). Oh and they learn Wreck. Wreck is one of the best abilities in the game since it has a chance to terminate an enemy Dream Creature. They learn it at level 99 so I won't be wasting a slot on them.

Name: Leaf Chogo
wiki page
Tier: Wasted
Recommended by NP?: Nope
My Tier: Middle
Stat Sum Rank: 17
HP Rank: 10
Strength Rank: 22
Defense Rank: 15
Speed Rank: 69
Skill Rank: 81
Resist Rank: 9

The Leaf Chogo is a Griffin like creature that serves as the very definition of what it means to be in the "Wasted" tier. Its stats are phenomenal. In fact, outside of the Hyrens, this is statistically the best Dream Creature in Naroom. However, it lacks the move set to really take advantage of it. All of its moves utilize its terrible Skill score. So, unfortunately, the Leaf Chogo is not a very good creature. I pick one up later in the LP mostly because I'm curious how bad a creature with these kind of stats can be in this game.


This is the Start menu. Its here that we can find out information about our Dream Creatures, use items, and see what level Tony is. However, the real reason I wanted to show this screen was to show Tony's current Energy. Energy serves as both health in this game and "mana." In order to summon a Dream Creature, Tony must use a portion of his energy equal to the health of that Dream Creature. Tony can also use energy to cast spells as well. Each time Tony levels up, this stat increases by 10 so we want Tony to level up a bunch. Dream Creatures also have Energy and use it to use any skills they may have. Energy management is a big part of the strategy in Magi Nation.


Anyway, we head north to Vash Naroom where Eidon meets us and calls for the Staricase to come down.




We are then introduced formally to our comic relief villains in this game, Korg and Zet. Korg is the orkish looking one and Zet is the guy with the massive grin on his dialogue sprite. Korg and Zet are like Pinky and the Brain except, in this case, Brain (Zet) is not in charge. Another way to think of them is as a married couple where Zet is the level headed wife who suggests good ideas only to be told to go back into the kitchen and make Korg a sandwich while he takes said idea and completely fails at it.


This is Korg's favorite line in the game. He says it a lot. In this case, its after Zet suggests running up the stairs to Vash Naroom in order to cause disarray.


Zet realizes that the stairs might be raised while they are trying to walk up them and encourages Korg to run quickly.


Korg is worried about being seen even though they've probably already seen them by now. Lookouts and all.


Unfrotunately Zet was right, and the stairs disappear from underneath them.


It should be noted that this is the only scene in the game where the stairs to Vash Naroom are raised or lowered. Which begs the question why Korg and Zet just didn't come back later and attempt to make mischief.

[Peanut]

Are you ready for a pretty important plot sequence that explains a major reason why fans of the game aren't fans of the show? Because I sure am! Also here's Vash Naroom's music.




Orwin and Eidon are locked in a heated debate when you get to his house.








Kyros is the prophesied messiah of this world in case you are curious. We'll learn more about the Great Magus Kyros later but without knowing that basic idea, you'd miss how good this conversation (even edited) is and why the show was a massive betrayal to the fans of the game.


Poad is the innkeeper in Vash Naroom. Inns are the other location where you can save your game and the only location where you can recover lost energy without leveling up. Poad will also help us in a sidequest to give Jellybeans to an old man.






Well...in his defense, Poad's cooking skills are legendary...

There's more to this conversation including another example where he claimed Yaki (who runs the training grounds and is known for being overly excited and starting every sentences with "Oooo Yeah!") was also Kyros. This reveals a good bit about Eidon as a character, namely that he is clinging to a hope that Kyros will come to this world and set right what is wrong. This has caused him to look for Kyros everywhere and has resulted in several false Kyroses (Kyrosi? Not sure how you make that plural...) which has caused others (Orwin) to doubt his word and any "signs" he presents. Orwin is actually justified in this and, to be quite honest, this scene makes him really likeable even if he seems like a stick in the mud who doesn't want us to go on an adventure. He knows he has every reason to doubt Eidon because up to this point he's been completely wrong. On top of this, he sees a guy literally thrusting the weight of the world on the shoulders of a teenager who just wants to get home. He's wise enough to realize how bad of an idea this is and puts his foot down in the sternest way possible to protect Tony. However, Eidon is right, this time is different. This goes back to Tony using a chunk of Animite to summon a Dream Creature. By the laws of this world, that is impossible. Infused Animite contains the "soul" of a Dream Creature however to summon it it has to be crafted into a ring. Tony summoning Furok from a piece of Animite is this worlds equivalent of Jesus turning water into wine, walking on water, and feeding ten thousand. Its a miracle.

So why did I just write a short essay analyzing this? Because within the first episode of the TV show, this is thrown completely out the window. First of all, everyone and their grandmother uses hunks of animite to summon Dream Creatures. Yes, it looks better for animation then rings but it makes it impossible for Tony to stand out as being special even though he's supposed to be (or be one of) the Last Dreamers (the show renamed Great Magus Kyros to this which I'm ok with to be quite honest...even though Kyros is a cool sounding name). Oh, and there are two other characters who might be or are the Last Dreamer. So yeah, all these pressures surrounding Tony's role as the Messiah figure for this world. All this pretty good writing that makes Magi Nation's plot and characters good for a game meant to sell cards. Its all gone. Tony is essentially only special in the game because he's from another world and has a Furok that's seen things.

[mechana2015]

Interesting plot with a lot better reason for the player to do what they do than pokemon. Nice.

[Peanut]

We steal everyone's treasure in Vash Naroom and become the richest person in all of the Moonlands.


This is a relic. Relics are things that can be equipped to Dream Creatures in order to increase their stats or do silly things to them. This particular relic increases a Dream Creatures skill by 10.


Baloo Leaf's heal 10 energy.


Remedy Drinks cure a Dream Creatures status.




These cat pictures usually say something funny (like pictured above) however one of them gives us 5 Animite. With that 5 Animite, I am going to make Tony the richest man in all of the Moonalnds.


The shop in Vash Naroom sells Strength Gems which cost 5 Animite and provides a temporary boost to strength in battle. However, there is a much better use for them.


You see, they sell for 18 animite. 18-5=13, which means that Tony is making a 13 animite profit every time he buys and sells a Strength Gem to this shop owner.


The end result is Tony hits the cap for money and becomes the richest man in all the Moonlands. This might seem completely broken but it really isn't. The only thing this trick makes easier is grinding levels for you Dream Creatures since the quickest way to level them up involves large sums of money.


Oh I will Mr. Shop Owner. I will.

[Peanut]

I forgot to include the shop music in the last update. This song plays in every shop you enter into in the game.


Pruitt is the ringsmith in Vash Naroom. She is the one we go to with our hard earned Animite to produce rings that let us summon Bears and Mushrooms to crush our foes.


She explains what Animite is here. Basically, when you kill a Dream creature, its remains turn into crystals called Animite. Most Animite is nothing special and therefore used as currency in this game. Some, however, is infused with the soul/spirit of the creature you killed. Collect enough of it and you can forge a ring. Most rings (with a few exceptions) require two different creature's animite to make. This happens to be the downfall of any completionists desire to get every single creature's ring in this game but now I'm getting way way way way way ahead of myself.

Anyway. Ringsmith's allow you to Forge, Equip and Power your rings. Forge is how you create rings for Dream Creatures. Power is a way to level them up and only requires some animite and infused animite from the specific creature whose ring you have. Equip is for when you have more then ten rings and want to switch around what Dream Creatures you are using.


Each area we visit will have a ringsmith. Ringsmiths can only forge and power rings from their respective areas. This means if we want a team of super powered Hyrens as well as the best creature in the entire game we're going to have to do some back tracking later on. Either way, Ringsmith's are pretty cool dudes. Anyway, its time to do a quick side quest before we continue on with the story.




Evu is the historian of Vash Naroom and, if you can't tell, he's old. Really, really old. Historians in each area can tell you what certain items and relics do. I barely use them because the internet is way more reliable for finding out that information anyway. However, there is a sidequest we can do for this guy. He wants some Jellybeans from Poad, so let's get them for him.


Poad offers to make us some Jellybeans as well. I don't quite remember, but I think Tony declines them because the flavors are...strange. Either way we now have the Jellybeans Evu wants.




I like the fact that you can refuse by claiming their yours as if they were the one ring themselves. Poad's cooking truly is mystical. However, if we don't give him the Jellybeans we don't get a nice little prize. As it turns out, Evu was a bit of a mage in his younger days and he teaches Tony his first spell.


In battle, Tony can cast spells to either support his Dream Creatures or damage enemy dream creatures. Spells cost energy just like summoning Dream Creatures so you have to be wise about when you use them. Some spells are incredibly useful so the cost of not focusing is worth it. Others are terrible and probably should never be used. Leaf Cut is one of these terrible spells. It costs 8 energy and deals 5 damage to a target and when I say 5 damage I mean exactly 5 damage. This applies for every damaging spell in the game that Tony can cast. In general, the spells that do damage are the ones you don't want to cast because they just aren't worth it. We will be getting some spells that are worth casting though in a little bit.

[Peanut]

Let's get this show moving a bit faster k?





Eidon and Orwin get into another argument. This time over whether Tony should see Eidon's master Gia or not. Orwin never lets us have any fun. If only some sort of plot related circumstance could occur so we could experience this magical world of bears with antlers.



Eidon instead decides to take Tony somewhere a bit closer to home. This brings us to...


...the Naroom Training Grounds. Here Eidon gives us the Eldritch Awl, an item that lets us escape dungeons instantly. I never use it. He also introduces us to...


...Yaki. If you can't tell, Yaki's catch phrase is "OOOOOH YEAHHH!! DIG IT! WOOO!" This is likely ripped straight from the wrestler Randy Savage. I say likely because its never been confirmed and its based mostly on the fact that another character has a catch phrase ripped from The Rock. Yaki is the trainer in Naroom and is all sorts of awesome. He was also one of the people that Eidon claimed to be the Great Magus Kyros in the past much to the annoyance of everyone else.


Not copy the rest of this conversation, unfortunately. Yaki is a fun character but I've got more important things to capture then ten screen shots of "OOOOHHHH YEAAAAHHHH!!!!"


Yaki can explain how battles work in this game and how to get Infused Animite for rings.

I read none of this because I've already played this game and can easily explain anything without his help. I leave without having much of a conversation with Yaki or with his apprentice, Salafy, whose in the lower corner of this picture. Salafy serves as our "rival" and is one of the few Magi we can fight and the only magi we can fight multiple times. She grows with Tony and, by the end of the game, ends up with a set of level 99 Weebos (they use Wreck in the fight...). I should have fought her to show this off, but I don't for a very long time because it only recently occurred to me that I should probably show those fights off. Either way, I'm done here so I go and talk to Eidon.


Then an earthquake happens. Eidon decides to go find out what's going on and we follow him. But first, hey Yaki, mind doing your best impersonation of the Kool-Aid man?


Mmmm...6 out of 10. You didn't burst out of a brick wall so that subtracts some points.

[Peanut]

After leaving the Training Grounds, Orwin rushes up to Eidon to find out what's going on. Then rushes off to the Glade to investigate further. Some other villagers rush down and ask Eidon the same question and then run off to find Orwin in the Glade. If you haven't figured it out yet, we're going to the Glade which is to the east of Vash Naroom.


Ah the Glade. This is the first place where we are introduced to battles with wild dream creatures. See that white thing, that's a dream creature. If we walk into it we will get into a battle with 1 or more of them. Unlike Pokemon, most areas in Magi Nation do not have random encounters. We'll be getting in a battle in a moment but first, let's talk about what Dream Creatures can be found in the Glade. Furok and Weebo's make an appearance as well as the following creatures:

Name: Twee
Link
Tier:Negligible
Recommended by NP? No
My Tier: Bottom
Stat Sum Rank: 75
HP Rank:83
Strength Rank: 60
Defense Rank: 83
Speed Rank: 22
Skill Rank: 20
Resist Rank: 65

Twee's are pretty bad. Their stats are lousy and they only get 2 moves (Leaf and Roots) which aren't anything to write home about. Their skills do make use of their high skill and their speed is nice but there are just way better Dream Creatures you can find then these guys. So we'll be passing them by.

Name: Bhatar
Link
Tier: Good
Recommended by NP? No
My Tier: Top
Stat Sum Rank: 24
HP Rank: 2
Strength Rank: 17
Defense Rank: 77
Speed Rank: 69
Skill Rank: 84
Resist Rank: 25

Speaking of better Dream Creatures, the Bhatar is awesome and, next to the Hyrens, is probably the best Dream Creature available in Naroom. Only Furok can really compete with it. Whereas Furok is a tank, the Bhatar is striker capable of dealing a lot of direct damage to specific targets. Furok overall has slightly better stats, but Bhatar has a better move set. All of them utilize its high strength and Choke can lower a target's skill by 20 (which is HUGE in this game). The ultimate prize though is Crush (learned at level 50) which has a chance to terminate an enemy and hits with a 2.25 multiplier. The Bhatar makes the next area pretty easy which makes it a surprise that Nintendo Power didn't recommend it. I guess they didn't really give it a chance.

Name: Plith
Link
Tier: Negligible
Recommended by NP? No
My Tier: Bottom
Stat Sum Rank: 66
HP Rank: 69
Strength Rank: 68
Defense Rank: 69
Speed Rank: 22
Skill Rank: 16
Resist Rank: 70

Plith really suffer from having a lousy moveset. They're fast and have better HP and Defense then a Twee. But, they only have one move (Gust) to take advantage of their high skill and gust really isn't that good. They do get a healing skill and a debuff skill that's ok but, again, there's way better dream creatures out there. Its disappointing too because if they had at least one good move I could see them being a Gimmick/Mid tier creature that would be worth looking into. But what do you expect from a giant butterfly not named Butterfree?



Anyway, battles. This is the menu within battles for Tony. Summon lets us summon a Dream Creature (like I already have when this screenshot was taken...). Focus lets Tony recover a small amount of his energy and is what he will be doing most of the time in a battle once he summons the appropriate Dream Creatures. Spell lets us cast spells (like Leaf Cut). Item lets us use items and run lets us run away like little girls.

I didn't take a screenshot of this, but when it is Furok's turn, the screen gives us the option to fight or use a skill (in this case Scratch). If you push the right arrow, you can also choose to defend which is nice if you want to lower the amount of damage a Dream Creature will take while Tony casts a healing spell or uses a healing item on it to recover its energy. Generally, you don't defend very much in this game because spamming skills works way to well.

Finally, here's a write up on how damage is calculated in the game. I'm not going to go through it all in this thread because it will take WAYYYYYYYYY to long to explain and it isn't that important to know. So only read it if you are interested in knowing why certain moves are only good when a Dream Creature has a high Skill or Strength stat.


After slaughtering your foe, you gain back a little bit of energy as well as the remaining energy your dream creature(s) had back. This makes pacing out your energy usage very important in certain areas. There is nothing more embarrassing in this game then showing up at a boss with not enough energy to summon enough dream creatures to deal with them.


You also occasionally get some Infused Animite. I talked about this earlier so I won't go into anymore detail but yes, unlike Pokemon, this game relies on you killing monsters to get them (which avoids a lot of the frustration that Pokemon has caused all of us...).


Tony has leveled up! Each time you level up you gain 10 energy and have your energy fully restored. Leveling up is sometimes the only reason you can keep on going in an area without stopping to rest at an inn.


A treasure chest we can't get? We'll be back later for you!


I'm about to find Orwin, and Tony is now level 3. This is good because there is a fight coming up.


Furok has also grown to level 5, making him more of a beast then he was when we got him.

[Peanut]

It's really been too long Magi Nation. But I've got some free time so how about an update.


Orwin discovers a massive, ominous black tower that wasn't here before and immediately realizes that Eidon was right about elements of the prophecy coming true. Namely that massive black towers will start appearing and bring lots of bad things with them. Somewhere Eidon is screaming "I told you so."


These black towers are called Shadow Geysers and they are the main dungeons in this game. They are also incredibly annoying to play through since you cannot save in them at all and battles occur at random making the entire thing a marathon unless you've overleveled and are content with just using the fight command for just about every battle. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, an important thing to take note of is that Shadow Geysers are incredibly dangerous places that can only be entered by a select few individuals. Everyone else gets fried. Orwin, unfortunately, is not one of these individuals but that doesn't stop him from charging head first into the Shadow Geyser and collapsing on the ground.


Korg and Zet appear and, realizing that killing the elder of Vash Naroom might be a good idea, decide to try and...


...do...horrible...horrible things to him...


Orwin, however, is a tricky old man and, right before they can deliver a devestating blow, he disappears causing Korg to knock Zet back into the wall of vegetation. Tony Jones appears at this time and Korg figures now would be a great time for revenge so he attacks him.


Korg will surely get his revenge! After all its not like he just wasted a bunch of energy fighting Tony back at the river, fell of some stairs and then smashed his heterosexual life partner into wall of vegetation! Oh wait...he did do all those things...yeah this is a really easy fight, especially for an overleveled Furok and Tony.

Battles with other Magi aren't that unusal really. They summon dream creatures and you summon dream creatures. You can only attack them directly once all their dream creatures have been cleared out and they can only do the same when you are out of dream creatures. Later battles will add in cheap things like enemies that can summon two dream creatures at once. Those magi also have way more energy to waste summoning and resummoning monsters. Korg has only enough for a single dream creature, the same one that Furok mauled back at the river.


Since Korg isn't a threat I might as well show off Leaf Cut (kind of).


The animation is what you would expect, leaves spinning past an enemy. Its damage, as I mentioned, is terrible so this will be the last time you see me use it.


Korg's dream creature goes down pretty easily which means the battle is basically over. All that's left is for Furok to maul him until he doesn't want to play anymore.


Apparently being mauled by a bear with antlers hurts.

[Peanut]

With the fighting done Orwin reappears right as Eidon shows up. I have to wonder how Orwin managed to disappear though.


Oh...so he hid like a Hobbit. Well that's useful I wonder if we could get something like that?

Orwin proceeds to tell Eidon that he was right and he needs to take Tony to see Gia as soon as possible. Eidon thinks Orwin is delirious (probably because this is the first time he's agreed with him on anything) and then tries to enter the Shadow Geyser. Orwin stops him before Eidon gets himself killed pointing out that he is in this terrible state because he tried to enter it. He then brings Tony over and gives him this.


The Energy Band lets us kick certain rocks, giving us the ability to find all sorts of hidden things we wouldn't have been able to find before. We do not get Orwin's hood of hiding which I would have preferred almost more then the Energy Band. Seriously, being able to instantly escape from certain situations would be awesome in this game.


The rest of the crew shows up and takes Orwin back to his house to rest and heal. Tony is concerned, obviously, so we should probably do something about this.


Upon returning to Vash Naroom, Tony is confronted on the stairs by an old man.


Its here that we find out that Orwin is not doing so well...


Not well at all. This is the introduction to one of the few sidequests in this game. Healing Orwin is completely optional and only gives you a change of scenes in the ending. We are going to try and save him because I've never done it and Orwin's a nice dude. If you choose not to save him, instead of getting the scene related to him in the ending I will be showing, you get a scene where a funeral procession is carrying his coffin out of Vash Naroom to be buried. Talk about grim...


If you ask around town (which I neglected to do) the people will direct you to the Seer. Visiting the Seer is the first step in healing Orwin as he is the only person in Vash Naroom with the know how to do so. The Seer's house also has some dream creatures you can get outside of it. You can collect Weebo's and Plith's as well as the following dream creatures we haven't run into yet.

Name: Rudwot
Link
Tier: Gimmick
Recommended by NP?: No
My Tier: Middle
Stat Sum Rank: 53
HP: 58
Strength: 46
Defense: 52
Speed: 34
Skill: 46
Resist: 52

I have a soft spot in my heart for Rudwot's. They are outperformed in just about every way by the Wasperine but I just like the lizard's with their claws and leafy backs. They learn Scratch, Fang and Carnage which are all strength based attacks and they've got decent speed. Carnage is the best move they get with its ability to hit multiple enemies at once for decent damage however the Wasperine gets the same attack earlier and has a higher strength to take advantage of it. I'll be getting a ring of this one later but really, the Wasperine is a better choice.

Name: Vinoc
Link
Tier: Wasted
Recommended by NP?: No
My Tier: Middle
Stat Sum Rank: 30
HP: 40
Strength: 22
Defense: 27
Speed: 37
Skill: 53
Resist: 35

The Vinoc is a sleaker looking Bhatar. It has really good stats but its held back by a less then stellar moveset. It learns Scratch, Claw and Bramble but Claw and Scratch are really the only two attacks that take advantage of its stats. Bramble is very good but its a skill based technique so the damage output from it is less then stellar. Really, you're better off sticking with a Bhatar.


When you get to the Seer's house, you see a chest lying on the ground. When you try to open it up this happens.




And the Seer pops out of nowhere. I have to admit, this guy might be the smartest NPC in all of RPGs since he actually took the time to protect his valuables instead of just leaving them in easy to access areas for the hero to take. With this being said, we will be able to get said valuables after we do this part of the sidequest.


The Seer is an interesting character.


He's sort of eccentric and would rather be called something else then the seer.


Such as this.


Or this.


After sometime listing off other silly names, Tony finally gets him to identify himself as the Seer and convinces him to investigate what's going on with Orwin.


According to him, physically everything seems fine. Orwin has some scrapes, burns and bruises but nothing that a few days of rest couldn't fix. There is another reason why he has become so sick.


Yep, the Shadow Geyser poisoned him. And poisoned him bad. The Seer thinks that this type of poison can only be removed by an incredibly rare (and annoying to find) item.


This is that item and this is the central part of this sidequest. The Seer explains you won't be able to find it in any store or lying on the ground anywhere. Its that rare and he's right. There is exactly one Cloud Frond in the game and its powers of healing are pretty epic (if you use it it will completely heal yourself or a dream creature). I know where to find it and I have to say, its not that easy to find. You have to navigate a maze of a place that you visit only once in the game. So, we will have one shot at this and that's it. But with this all set up, we can finally move on to meet Gia in a place called the Weave.

[Peanut]

I'm pretty sure I won't get any responses to this but I figured I'd go ahead and ask anyways too see if there is some interest. For those of you who are newer to CAA, I've started several Lets Plays on CAA over the past few years. I have only managed to finish one of these Let's Plays and there has been a variety of reasons why this is the case. In some cases, it was just sheer stupidity on my part (like screwing up my save states) and in others its been because of things I could not control (like the thread getting deleted). There is, however, one overarching issue that has prevented me from completing these and that is a lack of time and desire. Screenshot LPs like the ones I have been doing take a considerable amount of time to create. I have to collect the screenshots, occasionally edit them so they aren't tiny, upload them all in an order I can follow, then copy and paste each image code/link into a post and finally come up with things to say about at least some of them. When I started this LP as well as my others, I was willing to use up a chunk of my free time to do all of this. Now, however, I am using that same free time to stream on Twitch because its simply a better use of my time. This plays into the second issue which is my desire to continue these LPs. As much as I enjoyed doing them, the work it takes as well as some unforeseen problems has taken its toll and killed my desire to spend the time needed to produce them. I do, however, want to continue playing through these games (namely Magi Nation, Pokemon Silver and Emerald, and maybe Heroes of Might and Magic) and I would love for people on CAA to enjoy them with me. Coincidentally, the hobby I have replaced this hobby with allows me to do so in a way that is much easier for me and allows for live interaction. So, this brings me to my question for anyone who has followed my LP threads or has just stumbled upon this one. Would you watch me stream any of these games if I did them once a week?