A Gaming Diary
DS
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 19th
I’ve got a few more souls. Skeleton Farmer, couple of others. Nothing very interesting.
I’ve just been back to those spikes to try and work out how to get past them.
I just can’t see a way. There’s a very narrow gap. A bat could get through, but they’re underwater.
It’s killing me. In a good way.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 18th
Three new souls got.
First up, Tombstone. I got over 10,000 experience points from killing them before one gave up a soul. As they only give out 48 points per kill, you can work out how many I had to dispose of. Took forever. I was playing by sound alone while watching TV for a good proportion of it.
Run left, wait to hear Tombstone noise, attack, turn around and head right, wait to hear door opening noise, turn left. Repeat. For ever.
After that, I just went for a run across the castle. Took some time out to get a Yorick soul, but that dropped quite quickly.
Then went and got one of the secret creature souls. Pretty easy, actually. The newspapers told me what to do and using a couple of souls I managed to trap and kill him. Soul dropped on about the tenth kill. Somewhere around there.
But none of those souls seem to have given me anything that will get me past spikes.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 16th
Up to 75.1% of souls got and level 54. Completion rating 93.4%.
For my reference, souls I haven’t yet got -
16 – Slime
19 – Manticore
23 – Yorick
24 – Skeleton Farmer
29 – ???
30 – Tombstone
32 – ???
34 – Quetzalcoatl
62 – Heart Eater
71 – ???
73 – Decarabia
74 – Dead Mate
(Pause. Why doesn’t the Dead Mate have a Soul Rarity rating? And why do you not seem to get XP for killing one? Resume.)
75 – Bugbear
79 – Alura Une
80 – Great Axe Armor
81 – ???
82 – Mushussu
88 – Black Panther
89 – Mud Demon
90 – Giant Slug
91 – Werewolf
92 – Flame Demon
94 – Arc Demon
96 – Slogra
97 – Stolas
98 – Final Guard
99 – Malacoda
100 – Alastor
116 – ???
There are, so I’ve heard, two souls that can be used to get past the spikes. I’ve got some way to go to be sure that I’ve got it…
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 16th
Just wandering around collecting souls.
I’ve got 72.1% now, but still haven’t got one that lets me get past those bloody spikes, it seems.
Unless I’m being stupid, which is very possible.
Trauma Center: Under The Knife
Oct 11th
Stuck now!
I get so far into the operation I’m doing and then… nothing. I can’t work out what to do next. I try using all the tools, but nothing seems to do anything.
Gah. Stupid puzzles. I’ll get back to it later.
Trauma Center: Under The Knife
Oct 11th
Another operation done.
Less stressful, even though I nearly failed it. The patient’s vitals went bad several times and I found it very, very difficult to bandage his wound at the end of things. Ended with eighteen seconds left on the clock.
Wasn’t worried about scarring or efficiency this time, I was just glad not to kill the guy.
Trauma Center: Under The Knife
Oct 10th
Oh no, no, no.
I can’t do this.
I’ve just been through the first two training missions and I can’t carry on. It’s too stressful. The music, the medical theme, they put me under too much pressure. I just got a ‘Bad’ rating for some suturing and now I’m feeling horribly guilty about the scar the guy’s going to have.
My mouth is dry and I’m only just beginning to calm down.
I never had this problem with Operation, of which this is a distant cousin.
Most stressful game ever. Even though it’s just a puzzle game in a medical skin, the stylus starts to feel like a scalpel and I don’t know how I’d feel if I failed and the patient died. Probably horrible for the two seconds it would take to reload and start over, at which point all the stress would probably leave and this would become just a normal game with normal levels of pressure.
God, the DS is great.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 8th
Well, I went to the shops to buy Black % White 2, but I saw the price before taking it up to the counter, so it stayed on the shelf. Decided that I wanted to play the original Call of Duty, but that doesn’t seem to be available in, you know, shops any more, so I came home empty-handed.
Back to Castlevania, then. A couple more souls got – a Tanjelly and then a, er, something else – and then realised that my battery light had been on red for longer than might be healthy, so I found a save room and switched off.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 7th
Tch.
You wait half an hour for a Peeping Eye soul and then two come along at once.
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Oct 7th
Argh!
I still haven’t found a way past the spikes! There are spikes under some water and a low ceiling. And I can’t find a way past them.
I’ve been collecting souls, but don’t see how any of them would be any use.
I had the great idea of getting a Killer Doll soul, because I thought that might let me throw my doll further, which would get me to the other safe space after the spikes… but after ages and ages of trying I finally got a Killer Doll soul and it just nullifies curses. Rubbish!
Those spikes are my new arch nemesis. And yet I don’t want help. I will defeat them myself, someday. Someday.
