How to
Save the World
Part Seven
“Heroes get
remembered, but legends never die.” George Herman “Babe” Ruth
SWITCH…
The scene is
Diamond Castle in the past. King Aetre sits on his throne as he listens to Ky
speak in front of him. Aetre’s faithful jester, Kamikaze, stands next to the
throne. Cinema:
Aetre: Yes, I
can see you’re from the future, because you have a medal with my seal on it,
but I’ve never seen you before. And I know that King Hector had a large variety
of long-range weapons, but I don’t think that Reginald Dastard would have any
knowledge of that. The weapons were top secret.
Ky: Then how do
you know about them?
Aetre: Spies.
Now, as I was saying, if Dastard had gotten these weapons, as you say he has,
he would have used them by now. He would have either attacked me directly, or
tested the weapons on some undefended little town somewhere.
Ky: Agh! That’s
exactly what he’s going to do!
Aetre: Are you
yelling at me?
Ky: Your
Majesty, you have to believe me! Dastard is going to lay Club Town to ruins!
Trust me! And now I’m trying to stop it from happening, or evacuate the town,
or something… anything. It’s just that now I have to do it alone, because the
boy that was helping me out is stuck in the future, you see, his name is Lewis
Dominick—
Aetre: (suddenly
stirred): Hold it there! Did you say Dominick?
Ky: Huh? Um, yes
Sire.
Kamikaze: Don’t
pay attention to this girl, Your Majesty. She’s obviously lying. Why, the
Dominick line in Spadeland died out years ago.
Aetre:
Alexandra, if that’s your name, where does this Lewis come from?
Ky: He’s from
Club Town.
Kamikaze: See,
Sire? Even by her account the Dominick does not come from the Mountain.
Aetre: That’s
exactly why I’m starting to believe the girl, Kamikaze. There aren’t any more
living Dominicks in Spadeland, so it would make sense that the only survivor
would have moved elsewhere. If she had answered “Spade Mountain,” I would have
known she was lying.
Kamikaze: But,
Your Highness, there is no survivor. There never was a survivor. Do you not
remember, Sire? The last Dominick in Spadeland died without a living heir, just
like the king in Heartland.
Aetre: Good
Kamikaze, you forget the legend that the Four Heirless Kings each had rightful
successors all along? You forget that it was just such a discovery that helped
me to my throne today.
Kamikaze: Yes,
but just because you were discovered to be the descendent of the great
Diamondland Kings does not mean the legend holds true!
Ky: Pardon my
asking, but what legend are you talking about?
Aetre: It is no
concern of yours. You tell me that Dastard will strike Club Town. I will
therefore authorize a voluntary evacuation of the village. That means I will
come with you to warn the citizens, and all that want to leave can go to Safe
Haven Village. I will have my soldiers here provide for the transportation. But
any people in Club Town that don’t want to go don’t have to. Understand?
Ky: Yes, Your
Majesty. Thank you.
Kamikaze: This
is madness! Pure Madness!
Aetre: What? How
dare you call the king’s decision madness! I don’t like your attitude lately,
Kamikaze. You’ve been warned before. Pack your things and leave this castle at
once!
Kamikaze: But
Sire, there’s no way you can possibly run this country without me here as your
advisor. You cannot make important decisions without me!
Aetre: It looks
like I just did. Now, get! Alexandra, you go to Club Town. You claim to have
gotten two of the four Jacks? Then the third is in the Diamondland Dunes, the
sandy area to the East. The only way to get there without scaling the East
Ridge is through the underground Chalcedon Caverns. To get to those, you must
open a vault hidden west of Club Town. I really don’t know exactly where it is,
though. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be a good idea to evacuate Club
Town, but if you really want to help in the fight against Dastard, we will need
those Jacks. Good luck finding your switch. Say, Alexandra, are you absolutely
sure that this Lewis Dominick comes from Club Town?
Ky: Yes, Your
Majesty.
Aetre: And where
do you come from?
Ky: Safe Haven
Village.
Aetre: I wonder…
are you sure you’re the daughter of a messenger.
Ky: Yes, Sire.
Aetre:
Nevermind, then. Go to Club Town and find your switch.
A discouraged
jester leaves as the cinema comes to a close.
Two things just
happened here that changed the entire flow of the game. First, before this
scene, Lewis was the hero of the story. Now he is part of a legend! Ky also
enjoys a promotion, though. Before this scene she was Lewis’s sidekick. Now she
is a heroine. What’s the difference? Now she is fighting completely on her own.
Like Lewis, she has had preparation for battle, and even fought some enemies
before. She is her own identity now. Keep in mind, though, that as soon as the
game switches to Lewis again, she is just a sidekick helping the hero with
messages and hints. Besides, Ky’s playing time is far less than Lewis’s. His
battles are harder, he has more extracurricular activities, and Lewis is the
only one from here on out to face the real dungeons of the game.
*When upgrading
a role like this, you give an extra boost to the morale of the hero / heroine.
It is as if because he is chosen, more is on the line; if he fails to do his
job, there is nobody who can replace him. This is an increased sense of
urgency, and it is almost always a plus in an RPG.
You (Alexandra
Chi) go out of the castle. Because you cannot go through Obliteration Field
(you don’t have the spell, remember?) you go back through the Northern
Woodlands.
Now you get to
meet the good citizens of Club Town while it is still a quiet village of cabin
houses, wooden street signs, and shade trees in every yard. There are three
main streets: East Leaf Road, North Leaf Road, and West Leaf Road. The North
Leaf Road extends to the south and turns into the North Road. The East Leaf of
town is the commercial side of town. For example, you will find the local
grocer, the oddities shop, the furniture store, and the Deuce Tailors North.
Try and guess what wonders you can find in the Deuce Tailors North shop.
That’s right,
you get a uniform improvement. Ky trades her white suit and fifty Alligons in
for a red one. This is Ky’s only uniform improvement in the entire game, and it
really helps if you get it. Now you can do all of the combo moves and (if you
got the black uniform as Lewis) charged moves for your one weapon, the sword.
The North Leaf
of town is the residential sector. Go here to find houses of residents and talk
to people. Every person you talk to you warn to evacuate, so the more people
you warn, the better. It is very easy to warn them all in one fell swoop if you
go here and just start talking with people. The only two that don’t heed your
warning are the mother-in-law of the couple in the Heartbreak Hotel and the
aunt and guardian of Lewis Dominick. Strangely enough, you cannot speak to
Lewis himself because he is locked in his room 24/7 playing his guitar so
loudly the house shakes.
The West Leaf is
the sector where you will find the town library. Go here for all your
information on local legends, fighting techniques, and anything that might help
you. As you read the books, you find that there used to be a castle in Club
Town on the exact spot of the library. When you search around the shelves of
books, one shelf seems for some reason to be out of place. Remove it by pulling
it back slightly, and you will find a door. That door leads to a miniature
dungeon: the Cloverleaf Fortress Remains.
The Fortress is
a standard miniature dungeon. It is the basement of the library, but unlike the
underground diamond mines Lewis must face, this place is more like a sewer. The
old castle walls are covered with rot and mildew, and you won’t get anywhere
without having bought a flood lantern at the oddities shop. Much of the
fighting in this place is done with your lantern in Ky’s left hand, your sword
in her right.
Villains in the
dungeon are quick to spot you with your lantern, so you can attract lots of
attention you don’t necessarily want. Oh well, you knew this job was dangerous
when you took it, right? The bad guys here look like mutant slugs with army
helmets. They all claim to be guarding the fortress. Kill them all, get through
the corridors, and you will reach the end, where you will find a sign that
reads, “Here stands the switch that opens the gate to the Dunes. Guardians of
the switch, keep watch until my line reawakens.” After the inscription is a
seal with the markings of a crown and a clover and the name King Marcus Dastard
IV Last King of Clubland. You pull the lever and the vault opens. Then the
lever shifts to the side. Behind its original location there is now another
thing of interest: SWITCH…
*That’s enough storytelling
for now. In our last chapter, you will recall I mentioned exactly how the game
is advanced from stage to stage. In this chapter, I have embellished those
ideas. The important lessons to be learned here are as follows:
1. When
developing character, you are really developing the plot at the same time. You
are revealing to the gamer facts about the hero and villain that you did not
know before. Some of these developments you should let the gamer guess at
beforehand, but some of them must be surprises.
2. To develop
the weaponry in the most effective manner, not only should you make the weapons
gradually become more advanced and more powerful throughout the game, but you
should also make sure that the newer, more powerful weapons can help the hero
do more things than he could before in places he has already visited. This is
why a person playing a good RPG has to explore the world and revisit old
friends and places often.
3. When you go
to develop the plot, go about it as if you are in the gamer’s shoes. Try and
predict what places a person would likely go to first by instinct, what
directions they might go in, or whatever tangents they might stray off on. If
you can do this effectively, you can protect your game from potential defects.
By this I mean you can control what techniques your gamer might try to get past
an obstacle, and then you can let only one of those possible techniques
actually work.
4. In all RPG’s
there is a hierarchy of standard roles. From most benevolent to most evil, they
are: hero / heroine (Lewis), sidekick (Ky), knowledgeable sources (King Aetre),
loyalists (guards, good soldiers), commoners (citizens), enemies (army slugs),
bosses (Giant Swarm, Kamikaze Jester), villain (Dastard). You should include
all of these roles into your game in one way or another. And yes, one person
can fill two roles. And as I just pointed out, a person can improve their role
by becoming a character of destiny, a term that I use loosely, but which
basically means that the character is made more influential to the plot and
gameplay.
In
the next chapter, Part 8: The Compound Dungeon.