I don't know if I had mentioned that it has two builds, the one I knew was 062395a, if I'm not mistaken released by own developer.
However, it seems that a few years ago someone went to an auction or a used retro game store and found what would be a newer, more updated build with a bit more content, 071395a. Both numbers refer to dates written in the English format, month first, then day and finally the year. So they would be June 23, 1995 and July 13, 1995 respectively.
I decided to play the latter, because I remember the first build having unbalanced difficulty that killed me very quickly, causing the characters to die to enemies. If you want to try it, look for Hidden Palace and the name of the game.
The most noticeable differences at first glance are the music on the title screen, only the first build has the mission introduction showing the alien's Floating Fortress in the background image. Yes, we are seeking revenge for the alien's invasion of Earth, now it's our turn to visit their planet, which seems to be called Dusk.
The characters are almost the same. In the previous game I played as Captain Satoe Ishii and she does not continue in the sequel, so I chose the new female character in the group, Kirsten Holsted.
We start with a new weapon, the Buligun. It is the equivalent of the Handgun in the previous game. I think it's not possible to pick it up on the map, only from dead red aliens and its range is not very good against other types of aliens later in the stage.
In the image below there are these openings showing a bit of what the alien's planet looks like. In the next image there are some kinds of structures on certain walls that, if you shoot them, the aliens are released. I recommend that before shooting these walls, you stand right next to one of the walls, because that way you don't give them the chance for one to go left and another to go right. I learned this the hard way by taking some damage.
In the other two images below, I quickly found the elevator in the lower right corner of the map, but I want to do the same thing as in the previous game, clear the floors by killing all enemies. On the map image, I have three extra slots, where there is, for example, the Bulletproof Vest and two more empty slots. This is a great improvement, because these support items ended up interfering with the five slots that could be used only for weapons in the previous game.
On map 01, the start of the game, there are three different elevators. I decided to go to the elevator to the west of the map and leave the two elevators in the south of the map for later.
From map 01, I go to map 06. I don't know if the numbering in the map names follows a correct order of floors, since from 06 it decreases to 05, 04...
Here on 06, some purple aliens start to appear, very hard to deal with, because their damage is ranged and depending on the angle or position you're in, it's hard to see them on the screen with the purple textures, requiring the help of the little red dot on the radar. When you kill them, they drop ammo for a new weapon, the Rifle. It's a good weapon, it reminds me of the Shotgun from the previous game, it hits at a good distance and was a one-hit kill on common enemies. However, since it really works like a rifle, it's not a spread shot like a shotgun, it requires precision and good aim.
Another thing that bothered me in this game was the character's turning/aiming speed, you can overshoot if you press the directional pad just a little too much. Speaking of red dots as enemies on the map, here there are also blue dots, they are Medical Kits to recover the character's health, and all maps are quite generous with the quantity. I went through maps 06, 05, 04 and then followed to map 08, strange order...
On map 08, I start on the far left side of the map in the image below. I forgot to comment that on every new map we must explore it to reveal the rest of the complete map. That makes total sense to me, since we are in never before explored enemy territory. This also increases the tension, because at any moment I can be surprised by the enemy.
Here the environment changes and we no longer have a ceiling, which made me think, are we at the top? Will I face a Boss right now? But no, there were several enemies spread across an open map. However, I started noticing some game design patterns, the wide map, many resources evenly spread and on the far right side of the map there was this huge room with exits. I immediately thought it would be the Boss of the stage and that we would fight it in the open map outside that room.
Instead of going in, I decided to go back all those floors until I reached map 01 and then follow one of the paths to the south of it. My goal is still to eliminate all possible enemies on each stage. But unfortunately, to my bad luck, during my descent through the maps, in one of the elevators of the maps I had already cleared, the screen froze. Yes, the game froze. I don't know if it was because I was running and a bug happened because of that, or if the fact that I had already passed through the map and was returning caused some error in the prototype’s code. This discouraged me from trying again from scratch, so I decided to leave it to play later or on Sunday.
In the afternoon I decided to watch a summary of Chainsaw Man to see the movie The Reze Arc. I didn't remember the events of the season and didn't want to waste time rewatching everything again. The desire to see the movie spoke louder, I admit hehe. I already liked the work since the manga, when I read a few chapters before the first animated season. Now, with this movie, it was incredible,very well constructed, well animated, the story develops very well and gives more motivation to continue the manga. But I want to hold back to see the continuation in animation, whether in another movie or episodes. I can't stand having to wait for another season of Spy x Family anymore, when this one ends, I think I'll go to the manga as well on Shueisha MANGA Plus, like I did with Dandadan.
Boku no Hero, so the young boy was actually a new character just to demonstrate that society will also play its role in helping people beyond the heroes. This closing episode showed a bit of everything, a brief past of Midoriya, a new cycle beginning with new youngsters, peace reigning and the future of the main characters, some had more spotlight than others. The moment I saw Midoriya with the briefcase getting out of the car reminded me of Iron Man 2, the Marvel hero without powers. I liked the new designs, after 8 years, in adult life, this change is necessary. The world of this work has a lot of content to create and explore, a more detailed past of All for One, or even the current future of some characters working as superheroes. For example, the anime takes place only in Japan, what about other countries? The threat of All for One in the last episodes was escalating to something global, since countries were so afraid of one individual that they didn't send help and the many absurd powers he had were capable of destroying huge areas... So I wonder, could the work raise the threat level with another villain? Make this supposed new villain more feared and impactful than All for One was? I think it's difficult. I have the feeling that he was the final boss, the one that takes hours to defeat, requiring a lot of strategy and resources like in RPG games. Finally, is over. I don't plan to watch spin offs or continuations, I lack the time and motivation to follow long-running anime. I never felt like starting One Piece because of that.
To Your Eternity, achei o Fushi frouxo nessa luta, mas felizmente foi um bom episódio explicando o passado da mãe e como os Nokkers estão se organizando no subsolo. Me deixou interessado novamente para o próximo episódio.
Spy x Family, aaaaaaaaaaah, I want to know more!!! Now the mission's risk feels very real. For me it was the best of the season, after the bus kidnapping episodes. The ending, the bodyguard of Becky, she looked like a walking Pokédex haha.
Gnosia, wow, he ended up in a cycle where he's a woman hahaha, got a very well upgrade at the front. Jokes aside, it was an interesting episode too, advancing the story.
On Sunday, I decided to replay. I followed the same steps as Saturday, but instead of running when returning to the elevators, I went slowly and the freezing error did not happen. So now heading south of map 01, I go to the left elevator. There I go to map 03, where there are many enemies on the walls, it's good to follow the tip of staying close to the nearby wall.
After clearing the area, I go to another elevator on map 03 to map 07, where the number of enemies is greater. I almost died, but this stage is generous and I quickly recovered my health.
Since map 07 has no more elevators, I return to map 01 to take the southern right elevator. I arrive at map 02, which has a more symmetrical map design and also plenty of Buligun ammo and medical kits, but many enemies with Rifle, which also almost led me to death. I finish clearing the map, and since this one also has no elevators, I return to map 01 to go back to the Boss map of the stage. However, when passing through maps 06 and 05, in the image below I notice an error? Maybe something secret? I don't know, because the maps seem to have changed, as if there were something extra in these empty parts beyond the gray walls on the map screen.
I tried to investigate by shooting and throwing bombs, but none of that revealed anything secret, so I headed to map 08, once again facing the properly symmetrical doors.
When I opened the door, I came face to face with the Boss. I got startled, tried to take a screenshot, and ended up taking damage. With the Rifle, you can easily defeat it, because the impact of the shot makes it move backward. So you just keep shooting the Boss nonstop until a small explosion happens on its chest and it falls to the ground...
So was it an armor, or are the aliens mechanical beings in this game!? To my surprise, after defeating it, the screen below appears, something I always wished existed in the previous game. I was surprised that I couldn't kill all the aliens and missed secrets of the maps in this stage. A difference of 59 enemies is a lot. So I thought that some textures on the maps might reveal passages. I didn't get to test shooting all of them, worried about ammo, since I had never played this build before.
I also hadn't mentioned earlier that the enemy counter on the left side doesn't work very well, because it doesn't count these hidden enemies or those inside the walls that require you to shoot the walls for the enemy to come out. I'm considering looking for these secrets, but I need to know if they're actually accessible, since this is a prototype game. After this stage result screen, I end up in another stage with a completely different environment and no introductory screen for the new mission, but I decided to play it another day.
If you want to go straight to the Boss of this stage, you should follow this route:
Start Map 01 ➡ Upper west elevator ➡ Pass through Maps 06, 05, 04 and 08, the Boss
Today I went to the gym, did my whole workout routine and decided to run on the treadmill this time. I didn't feel any pain, but I was worried about overdoing the running, so I ran only a little.
People7_3&7, same case as the previous ones. I leave the second recolor a bit chubbier to differentiate it from the first recolor and I didn't like this one’s red palette, I need more red in my palette.
People7_4&8, this would be the elderly male version of People6_4&8, but they don't look that old to me. They don't even have wrinkles.
