I think more research should be done into my vision disorder. I think it helps me read faster than most people, and is the reason why I do so well in games with multiple enemies attacking you at once. I'm used to not having to really see things consciously, because it takes my eyes a while to focus. But my brain still receives the images and so I'm subconsciously aware of what I am not seeing?
Attention nystagmus is what it's called. It's a specific type of nystagmus that I haven't found much on. My eyes scan, meaning that everything in my field of view, my vision will bounce between. I am literally incapable of focusing my eyes on anything. My eyes never stop moving.
My eyeballs themselves are shaped irregularly in my skull, according to a childhood ophthalmologist. My vision is bad enough that even with glasses, I will never achieve 20/20 vision. I have almost 24/7 visual snow.
But yeah, I wanna be a guinea pig. I want to know what benefits, if any, there are to having this specific nystagmus. I want to know if my earlier hypotheses are right!! I want to know SOMEONE else with my type of nystagmus!!
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Raku Plays Her Faves, Ys VIII: Chapter 1, Part 1
In which a totally unexpected and not-at-all foreseen or hinted at event deposited Adol on...
Speaking of Cleanup on Isle Seven, we’re coming up pretty quickly on one of those unfortunate bumps in the story I referred to earlier. Although to be fair, it is a small one. More of an eyeroller than a dealbreaker.
“Shit, man...what did I DO last night?”
Oh, right. Thanks, game.
There’s a rusty sword stuck in the sand nearby. Since our boy’s apparently not much in combat without a sword - even a shitty one - he picks it up. The game then suggests we get a move on.
On the next screen, Adol finds a clear stream of nice potable water, drinks some, and restores his health. The game then points out that you can restore your health just by standing still outdoors (but not in areas considered dungeons), just like in other Ys games before. This is a nice feature to have, honestly, because then you can save your limited healing items for when you really need them.
Anyway, Adol explores a little further upstream, and finds...
*weary sigh*
...an old stupid trope. Sorry, I mean he accidentally sees a lady bathing in the river. With a miraculously pristine white towel that she, uh....recovered from the shipwreck? Somehow?
This lady is actually a pretty cool character, but you wouldn’t know it just by the introduction she gets. I originally had a kind of rant here about why this particular scene bothers me, even though it’s relatively minor and admittedly gets buried under the sheer scope of the game’s story. (As it should - the only thing better would be to not have it at all, but...) It got super long, so I copied the text, set it aside, and likely what I’ll do is make it its own post at a later time. Unless I stupidly forget.
But in short: This scene irritates me because a) this joke has been done to fucking death, b) it doesn’t do this character justice, and c) it sends the message, inadvertent or otherwise, that her most important trait isn’t that she’s smart (she is) or a good fighter (also true), but that she’s hot. It’s also disappointing because later on, there will be another character who proves that at least someone on the dev team knows how to write a strong female lead, because they absolutely get it right. Once we meet her, that’s when I’d like to do that later post.
So yes, discussion tabled. For now. Anyway, lady spies Adol, thinks he’s leering at her, she screams, slaps him offscreen, blah blah blah yadda yadda yeah we know the god damn drill so let’s move on.
After some grumbling and getting dressed, she introduces herself as Laxia von Roswell, one of the people you may have spoken to earlier on the Lombardia. She’ll soon become the second playable character in the game, and she uses a rapier for her weapon. It’s not obvious at this point, but her combat focus will be on accuracy. (Adol’s will be on slicing, naturally, since he’s got the sword for it.) Later on the game will introduce enemies that are more susceptible to specific kinds of damage, and you’ll be needing her specialty in certain areas.
Anyhow, despite getting off to a rocky start, Laxia decides that the most sensible course of action is for the two of them to stick together for now, even though she hasn’t forgiven him for the river incident. Also she makes it abundantly clear that she doesn’t need “the likes of him” to defend her. *sigh*
Same deal as the captain, I promise you she gets better. I like to picture some doofus writing her as a cliche, then at some point a more skillful writer looks at what doofus wrote and said, “Well, that’s fucking boring. Let me show you how it’s done, junior.” Or maybe they had to placate some higher-up (”Put in a bathing scene! It’s a classic! It’ll be hilarious!” “...yeah, okay. Sure thing, boss.”) and once that was done, they could write Laxia how they wanted. Probably not the case, but...
They find an area that’s easy to defend and beast-free, and decide it would make a good base of operations. But while they’re scoping the place out, Laxia thinks she sees a person disappear into a nearby cave.
This cave will become part of the home base later on, but right now the only interesting thing here is the entrance to the first dungeon, Waterdrop Cave. And like many dungeons in this game, it’s got lovely background music.
Adol and Laxia explore the small cave, and come across some old boxes, rags, and even a few treasure chests to loot. There’s a few healing items, a better sword for Adol, and some armor for both of them to equip, which they’ll be needing soon. Laxia notes that this is evidence that they’re not the first people to crash on this island, although whoever lived here probably died a long time ago. In fact...
They find a pirate skeleton propped up against a rock, which is holding a bottle of Revive Medicine, haha. There are other pirate skeletons like this hidden in other locations in the game that are holding notes, as part of a neat little sidequest.
At this point, Laxia also explains about the Extra Gauge, which is basically a yellow circle that fills up in the lower right corner of the screen as you do damage to enemies (or after you rest). Once it’s full, any playable character can unleash a unique super move that deals a great deal of damage - it takes a while to charge, so it’s best to leave it in reserve for boss monsters, at least at first. Speaking of which....
Just as they catch a glimpse of a person leaving the cave, this big bat monster drops down from the ceiling and attacks. That name, though. It sounds more like a medicine in a TV commercial. (”Ask your doctor today about Byfteriza. Do not take Byfteriza with alcohol, or in combination with anti-constipation medications such as Laxia.”)
I tried to get some action-y shots of battling the creature, but this was the only one that turned out anywhere near ok. It’s in the middle of Laxia’s super attack. Every playable character has one, and each has a different name, but they all do essentially the same thing: immobilize the enemy and allows you to wail on it for several seconds without having to worry about getting hurt.
Bat Boss here can hurt a lot simply because the area in which you fight it isn’t very big, and its body slam attack might reach you even if you dodge. But otherwise there’s not really much to it. Just keep beating on it and rolling away as best you can, and eventually you’ll defeat it.
Next time, on Ys VIII: Just who did we follow in here, anyway? Another castaway, or maybe even someone who lives here? Wherever here is? (Even though you can probably take a wild guess about that last one.)
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