u/FallenRaptor

I had to start with Shriek since it’s even older news to this community than the content actually associated with S4, which just goes to show how far behind I am due to waiting for the Kickstarter.

This set is on the more challenging side and is a combination of things I normally dislike in a set…but I think it all somehow comes together well enough that I don’t mind it as much as some other sets that try similar things.

I’m usually quite critical of sets that are heavy on RNG to the point where winning feels like pure luck, but although this set is RNG-heavy, I do feel like I have enough control over the outcome, and can pivot my strategy if I get screwed by bad luck.

I also tend to be critical of sets that are overly buried in complex rules, but…while I absolutely flubbed up rules from time to time due to being hopeless at this sort of thing, I didn’t find myself doing so more often than with most other sets, so I guess it all just clicked. There is an especially large quantity of small pieces, none of which I ever want to lose though, like more so than the average set.

This set is on the challenging side but I feel like it’s aimed at veteran players, so although I don’t think I would recommend it as a starting set, i think it is a good time for experienced players who love Final Girl.

Thematically, the set is right up my alley, and it’s a good tribute to past sets while also being free advertising for them plus other Van Ryder games. I haven’t been to a con entirely dedicated to board games but I could see myself doing that.

I always assess how I feel about a set in its default configuration by completing it with all included FGs, and I’m happy to say it’s a fun combination as-is. I also assess how I think it would be with other configurations and although direct experience will come with time, I could see Mort, the Mega BG Con and both included FGs being great with other sets.

All in all, I think this set just makes my top 5 (I included my updated rankings above). It’s definitely not perfect, but I think it hits the majority of the notes it’s trying to hit, and it’s a great time. I recommend this one to fans of this series.

I have so much to catch up on with all of S4’s content plus Shriek. I hope it was worth the wait but I’ll be up to speed soon enough.

RNG sent Dr. Fright to the Storybook Woods to face off against Jenette from Into the Void. He couldn’t kill anyone, lol. He tried a couple times but thanks to my Red Cape he hit me instead. Admittedly I forgot to panic the Woodsman and other victim the second time but it didn’t make a difference, nor did the fact that I gave Dr. Fright two extra health.

And this time it was Hell! Last time someone convinced me I was still getting really lucky and I should keep trying. I like keeping Sacred Spaces free, but I can’t do that if the RNG says “good luck with that” by giving me tourists on top of tourists (those first three pics are from the same game with the first shown Terror Card being the first one I drew). I always figured this set was more skill-based compared to other sets that are at least a good 90% RNG-based, but maybe I just had to experience the worst this one’s RNG had to offer.

It took quite a few tries this time, all of which were frustrating AF. I stuck with Adelaide for consistency but I don’t think it made a difference. When people mentioned not being able to do anything they must have been talking about being forced to repeatedly discard their whole hand. Even when other sets are cruel, the player usually at least has cards to play; this set can just say “there goes the entirety of your next turn”.

It took a miracle to finally win. Oh hey, a miracle. As cliche as it sounds I was legit able to grab the cards I needed to finish off Inky at that point. Good thing too as if I didn’t kill him then, he would have killed me on his next turn since his wrath was maxed out and neither of us had extra hearts that time.

Ok, I think I get it now. This still isn’t the set or combination I’ve had the hardest time with overall, but the Ls I took were among the most frustrating. Inky is still one of the killers I sympathize with the most since tourists do suck, especially Western tourists, but I’ve been underestimating his prowess up until now.

This community overwhelmingly insists Inkanyamba at the Sacred Groves is the hardest possible combination. I didn’t have much difficulty when I first played through this set; I might have taken a few tries with one of the FGs, but usually when I get lucky with one FG in a regular set, I’ll have a much more typical experience with the other.

Since I don’t recall this combination being so bad, I had to see for myself what all the fuss is about, especially since this set hasn’t come up again for me since I first played it, in any capacity.

I made sure to use it in its standard configuration and avoided adding as much extra stuff as possible such as Signature Actions, Special Dice or Tears. I even whipped out the Series 1 mat, which I hardly ever use unless I’m exclusively using S1 content. Heck, I only needed one Ultimate Box this time (zero chance I mostly chose that mat out of laziness). I heard people complain that Adelaide’s especially hard to use, so I picked her.

I did throw in Adelaide’s Bat & Shield which never came up, and Inky’s Epic Finale and Dark Power, the latter of which did come up. I did get a regular bat though, which was handy for knocking off that one Minor Dark Power. Fire and Brimstone as a starter sucks. What’s someone who starts off right next to it to do? Lol.

The result was…I beat him first try. I was able to keep the Horror Level in the green for most of the game. I didn’t get to flip my character card because Inky made it impossible to save anymore victims after my fourth, but fun fact: him killing so many victims made it so he couldn’t trigger the Sacred Groves Bloodlust Track, since it doesn’t extend up that far. Lol, joke’s on you Inky.

In any case…yeah, I still don’t get why this set is regarded as being so hard. I did get one of the best Terror Cards, but other than making a beeline for that bat and standing my ground my strategy was pretty consistent, so it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. It turns out I gave myself the best heart token but I didn’t need it as I only lost one heart that entire game. I didn’t even bother reaching for the Atonement Cards as I didn’t see the point.

It wasn’t just the difficulty as the rules are also so straightforward that this is probably the first time in a long time that I didn’t miss a rule on my first playthrough and have to restart. Regardless this set hasn’t kept me up past 4AM like some other sets and combinations. Maybe I should try Barbara again one of these days to see if that will make a difference to my experience?

Ayn Thor and the game featured is Mizzurna Falls for the PS1; a really ambitious open world set in a fictional town in Colorado…or “Corolado” according to that bit of Engrish (must be a beer brand). I’m seriously in awe of the scale and detail that was achieved in this game given the original hardware. Here’s a link to the patch: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6027/

There are so many diamonds in the rough to be discovered on these devices, including a number hidden in Japan for decades only to finally be translated in recent years, and so are especially unlikely to have been played by most English speakers. Hats off to the people who put in the hours to complete these projects and ask for nothing in return BTW. They’re the real heroes here.

PS: If you saw my previous post and wonder why I deleted it, there was an embarrassing grammatical error my phone must have added to the title which couldn’t be edited and my OCD didn’t like that. Rather than just repost it I figured I’d take the less lazy route, wait till morning and create a different one. I still wanted to shout out the excellent Mizzurna Falls but it’s certainly not the only excellent recently translated game that people should know about.

Ayn Thor. English Patched ROM. I can’t believe such a detailed and intricate open world was possible on the PS1 of all things. It’s a bit rough around the edges but not nearly to the extent that a game of this nature should be on the original PlayStation.

I’ve heard I should just follow a guide the whole way with this game and I intend to do that on my next playthrough since I’m most certainly not getting the good ending, but I just had to see what happens via exploring this town in my own first.

Pics 2 and 3 are just showing off some fun Engrish, although with it being at a bar I suppose these examples could be brushed off as beer brands.

Obligatory mention that the device is AYN Thor and I figured I’d test out the Cardcaptor Sakura RPG for the WonderSwan.

I might as well share all the pics I snapped to show how the app seems to work. Based on this first experience this app is amazing!

Honest observation is the translation accuracy seems to vary based on the amount of text being translated, which in all fairness shouldn’t surprise me as that’s consistent with all translation software I’ve used over the years, and Japanese and English are two very different beasts.

I have also noticed that in cases like the title screen where there’s a lot of text jumbled together, especially when said text is layered on top of one another, with the “press the start button” message floating by, the software can get easily confused, but that’s understandable, especially with a lot of text in these old games being pixelated.

I was eventually able to get the app to accurately capture all but the start message (which I thankfully know enough Japanese to infer the meaning of). In most cases though I find that if a translation feels off, running it again can yield a different result, especially if I break it up into smaller chunks to translate.

The Anki feature is amazing and I’ll definitely make great use of that as I try to use games to hopefully get the language down once and for all!

All in all, amazing app. Thank you u/domino_stars for the time and dedication you’ve put into this software that will open a lot of doors for us!