Star Cruiser (Sharp X68000) - Once More Around the Sun

Now that I've gotten the plot of this game done for a while, it's time to do what's the most enjoyable part of the game, combat. Or two of them, at the end of which is a guy who doesn't want to talk to me. Fair enough...but now the only paths forward are blocked by people and doors, and there are no more switches to pull. I can't leave either, so I must be missing something.

Eventually I end up back with Kirk, who suggests that Brian bribes the guard guarding the gate to Fowl. He spouts this line, making me realize that I may have been treating the protagonist differently to how he really is, and providing much needed plot advancement. I head over to the teleport, and nothing has changed in his dialog. Okay, maybe I misread the text and I was supposed to go back to the spaceport. Nope. Nothing has changed. Eventually, after resolving to try everything, I return to the guy who doesn't want to talk to me.

The random guy tells me that in order to get through, I can pay the "toll" to someone at the government office or directly to the officer. Uh-uh, sure. The guy at the office asks if I really thought it was that easy, but after some negotiation, tells me that he "lost" $1500. Sure, lost. I give the fine upstanding government official his dough, and he distracts the teleport guard for me.

On Fowl, there are two paths, each blocked by a guy. Much like the people on Egg, the guards on Fowl don't care about VOID, they just care about Egg. Brian asks his why they attacked Egg, at which point the Guard does the reverse of Egg's story. Egg attacked them, they valiantly fought them off, but Egg and a mysterious third force was helping them. They currently occupy the satellite in orbit between them. So, I'll have to figure out how to get there.

Fowl itself is the mirror image of Egg. Which I suspect is a subtle political statement. The buildings are the same and they do the same things. There are people wandering around in the rubble of the city, at which point I find another Lorne Green, who tells me that someone kidnapped a Meister and some scientists. Anyway, that's enough story, time to kill some more dudes who spin around in a small arena like they've just had a sugar rush. And by that, I mean one encounter after another.

After about four encounters and eight tiles, I meet a guy who absolutely does not work for VOID, who is a member of the Egg Elite Army. Remember kids, when you give your planet a funny name, at some point, someone's going to introduce themselves as the military from that planet. The fun never ends! He exposes himself as a VOID agent, and then I have to fight four guys at once. It's worse than you think, their shots do some decent damage.

That's just how you do things. If there's a little human, you have to interact with him, because it could be someone important. Then again, this game has me tricked into thinking that an enemy against a wall on the map is a sign that there's a secret there. It isn't, it's behind where the little guy was, which is also the path forward to VOID's secret moon base. Where I find myself doing more of the same fights I've tired of two entries ago.

Behind a gate switch, I find the kidnapped Meister. They were forcing him to improve their ships, so now he's real eager to work on Brian's. I just have to go back to his factory on Fowl. Sure, okay, I'll stop in the middle of freeing two planets from a deadly war to get my ship improved. Considering this game, it may even be wise. Only, when I get to his factory, he tells me he needs stuff from Egg. Do this, no, don't do this, do that.

It turns out I cleared out the moon base and I guess...I should find something to advance the plot? I can repeat the process that got me to Fowl by bringing the government official. For $2000 this time. Really hope you came prepared for this section, because there's been no leaving this place since I got here. Back on Egg, more wandering until I find a switch which has popped up out of nowhere and leads to more enemies I can deal with.

At the end of this series of enemies, I find a building containing the President of Egg. I repeat, I have fought my way to the President of Egg, all the while getting bounty money from his guards. That says something about the state of galactic politics, but what, I don't know. For reaching this lofty height, Brian asks him for permission to go to Fowl freely. He refuses to give it to me, because it's beneath him. Okay...what about the parts then? In a random secret wall? Okay.

The Meister, who thankfully does the work for free, then upgrades my ship. Now I can use Gravity Wave Gun 2, H-Shot 2, Radar 3, and Analyzer 3. I'll be sure to look for those when I head for the final star. I'll probably need them...well, who knows with the radar. He then tells me to find the path to the satellite from Egg. Apparently I wasn't at it? It's behind a door next to the teleport to Fowl, which can now be opened by a switch which has mysteriously appeared.

They have some sort of Tie Fighter now. You know how it goes by now. There's another mandatory secret passage, but at least there's some random sacks of cash lying around. I clear out the first floor, go back, and then head to recharge, then return to go up...only the place I thought lead to another floor just teleports me back to the entrance...because there's another secret path you have to hunt for. This leads to the boss.

After killing him, I get this, which is a bit creepy out of nowhere. He's the Crimson Scorpion and he brings Brian's attention to the VOID commander he just took out. It was a robot. Were they all robots? This one is a distraction so that VOID can complete their next project, which the guy says Brian will be able to find out on Hurricane. With this, the war is over, and I can leave the planet. Also, I'm pretty sure that's Daniel Gibson's portrait, just blacked out.

Hurricane is the first planet from the first sun, and a direct shot from Fowl/Egg. The soundtrack sounds like it's from a Sonic game, and the second I walk a tile, Crimson Scorpion talks to me again, telling me that I need to kill his former partners before going to Slender. Then I'm teleported in front of some weird alien monsters. This game has gotten a bit creepy, but the gameplay is still the same.

Oh, no, sorry, they're not dashing around like kids on a sugar rush, they're...normal? I never thought the game would get easier, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. Sure, there are dozens of respawn points, but at the same time, every fight is not some mad dash to hit a target that won't stay still. It's actually fun again. Though this does have the rather annoying thought that there's a secret passage I need to find somewhere. To the point that I'm actually taking out enemies at the end of dead ends in case that's what's happening.

Eventually, I find a path leading back to my ship. Well, that was a nice, pleasant little diversion. I'm sure next dungeon won't be as easy. Whoops, that's not true, because Crimson Scorpion calls me up and tells me I need to kill all the monsters before I can leave. That might be possible...if they didn't respawn. I was looking for secret passages, but I guess I didn't look hard enough.

After a few tries, I start to wonder if there really is a secret path somewhere. He did say I needed to kill all monsters, perhaps I just need to kill all of them in a certain section? That was they won't respawn? Or...are the tiles placed in such a way that there's a path forward without landing on a respawn tile and kill all the enemies. I put that theory to the test. It seems like the path forward...until I find the generator creating the monsters past a card telling me about it. Whoops.

Slender is the one planet outside the strange shield guarding the second star here. Which means another long trip around the system. The nearest safe planet is Axis 3, which was that weird dungeon/town combination where you have to enter the dungeon to get out, meaning the slightly further away Cherry Shuffle is the better option. And it doesn't matter because it's a town planet. There's even a bar.

There's a secret passage leading to a door with the switch in front of it. Since I've been here before, I suspect that just appeared. At the end is a figure that looks like a C64 imitation of Darth Vader. It's Crimson Scorpion, whom Brian immediately recognizes as Daniel Gibson. What's his motivation? Money, apparently they make faster money. He's a pretty decent boss, doesn't move around to an unreasonable degree and his damaging shots take two of mine to take out.

Once I've killed him and Brian makes a speech mourning the man Daniel used to be, I spot a figure behind me. It's the not-Luke Skywalker guy...David Gede? He has a rather la-de-da way of saying Gibson was an agent of VOID. He tries to reassure Brian that Daniel didn't go completely evil and didn't mean to betray him. Then he says they should to where he lived and search his house, on station Cherry Shuffle. Another trip around the star.

Daniel's house is obvious, but once inside the text goes slowly and there's moody music. Well, the game might be messing up the mood a lot of the time, but when it wants to, it nails it. There's a message on his answering machine from the guy who was standing around on Egg. Uh-oh. Then some woman he went on a date with and then a message for Brian. Daniel tells Brian to take a card, then warns him that there's something about Joshua. Exact quote, it cuts off after that.

There are actually two cards. Daniel, it seems, was working inside to sabotage VOID. Firstly, he messed with their weapons data, they won't be able to use the new stuff for a while. The remaining weapons development division is in the Barnard star system. They're called the Amazons of Twilight, and to find them I need to find a Mr. Sudo. Star Trek or Linux reference? You decide. The Amazons are very powerful, and if I attack them directly, I'll lose. I don't understand why he went to all this trouble when he could have just...not attacked me on Slender.

Given the way the game works, that I haven't had permission to go there seems like no trouble. Now that it's important, someone will pop up. Like Diana before I leave Cherry Shuffle. She has info on the factory where the Star Cruiser was produced. Brian, apparently, doesn't want to hear it. He's genuinely upset that he had to kill Daniel. Diana reminds him that VOID corrupted him. After she's done giving him a pep talk, she tells him that the factory is on Pluto 2 in Barnard, then asks if he has a pass. When he says no, she gives him hers. She warns him that the system is swarming with dangerous enemies.

The Gravity Catapult sends me to a floating space station called D2D. There's only one new piece of fancy equipment, an Ore Converter 3, which costs $35000, which actually brings me just under the 200k I cheated for at the start. The bartender tells me that he doesn't know a Mr. Sudo, but then mysteriously transforms into a new portrait and when pressed, says there's no information market there.

Random encounters here are somehow less tedious than the worst ones in Sirius yet offer more money. They look like X-wings and just sort of circle me. Not really a problem. Then the second group is an absolute pain to keep track of. Still, I'm up above the cheat line again. I stop off at Gargantua, a town planet on the way to Pluto 2. The shop only sells ammo, but there's signs of ruins further in. Just blocked by someone telling me that it's too dangerous.

Pluto 2 is not very new, but it has new enemies. I've figured out that you can scan enemies and get their stats plus name. So these fly things are called Katerinas. My gun is too underpowered for these guys, because after five of them total, I'm nearly down an energy tank. I decide it's best to just explore the rest of the system for the next gun instead of trying this out first.

I take the planets on the left side, which don't have anything I can do right now, but one did have an Analyzer 3. Which I'm sure I'll need eventually. Then I head for the center of the system and all hell breaks loose. Heading for the first planet from the sun, Dry Rock, I end up fighting some dude that Brian is really angry at. Then it's a boss battle against another Star Cruiser. It's as hard as I was warned, but less because the enemy ship is tough, and more because the guy has like five guys with him. After killing him, Mr. Sudo calls me and acts as if I know who he is. I actually reload because I think I did something in the wrong order. Which means no Analyzer 3 for the moment.

My last save was on Gargantua, and as I head for the second planet from the sun, Adam 3 I get a random message. Apparently a space caravan is selling goods in the middle of the map? The only new thing they're selling is a Wall Sensor. Which I buy, seems like it might be important in the adventure game sense. Adam 3 itself is quite an impressive place for 1987. It actually feels like a real space town as opposed to the local shops. There's a shop here which sells the Gravity Gun 2, Gravity Shield, which I can't use yet, and Radar 3. Some guy wants a Beam Booster 2 in exchange for information, which is a terrible deal in my book.

My next stop is Old New York. Actually, looking at my map screen, I finally spot what the Radar upgrades are doing, increasing the size of my map screen. This means I can see this entire star system and likely most of the others. Which means I don't really need to check the map much anymore. The new weapon does what you expect, more damage.

Old New York is a strange town, full of one way conveyors. This means you have to move carefully to find the building you want. By chance, I find the Meister, who upgrades my ship for a cool $8000. Now I can use the Gravity Shield, along with a Gravity Gun 3 and a Beam Booster 3. Which will be useful when I can find those things. The shield, meanwhile, seems to double my current defense power. This whole thing actually sets me back about 40k beyond the cheat threshold. At which point I have to say, I understand, that's about twenty fliers, but compared to a lot of games, that's not bad.

However, the guy I was supposed to meet? Nowhere, and strangely enough, there's a repair shop but no fuel depot. Even considering the layout of the place, I did check everywhere. So I head back to Gargantua to refuel and plan my second attempt on Pluto II, the next time I play this. However, first, we'll see, Elvira II - The Jaws of Cerberus, because what I need after a long, difficult game is another long, difficult game.

This Session: 4 hours 10 minutes

Total Time: 21 hours 50 minutes