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Beyond the Beyond: Update 17: Act 1 wrap-up and bonus material
So now we've completed the first section of the game and thanks to Advisor Glade being a tremendous douchebag we've been thrown out of Zalagoon. This means we have to go running around half the continent risking our necks with increasingly dangerous monsters everywhere just so we can collect McGuffins and maybe break Samson's curse.
Nuts to that for this update, however, because we're stepping out of character to explore some of the stranger things that exist under the hood in this game. Our narrative will resume in the next update.
So here's the Act 1 summary of events (last chance to skip before the wall of text!): Marion has been invaded and conquered by Bandore. Prince Edward was captured and the remaining Knights of Marion were scattered including our main character, Finn's, father Lord Kevins. Finn and companion dragon Steiner grew up in a remote village hardly ever seeing Finn's father (and surprise! his mom is dead, except that's not at all a surprise). They spent the invasion running around a cave getting punched by bats because Finn's foster father Sir Galahad sent him to retrieve some magic water. Thanks to crummy, sexist treatment from her parents, Finn's foster sister Annie also went to the cave to get said water and prove everyone wrong. She was then dragged underwater by a kraken, drowned, then was brought back to life by the magic water that turned out to be the genuine article. (takes deep breath)
The trio returned to their village just in time to get yelled at a little and for Annie's older brother Percy to wander into town. Mortally wounded, Percy began to stammer out his final words about Marion being invaded when Annie went "Fuck this noise!" and whipped out the cleric avatar state to heal him. That is how the group became a quartet sent out by Sir Galahad to see what's going on in Marion. While in town they witnessed some Bandore troops run across Sir Samson who promptly murdered two of their number and ran off. Our group found the secret passage he took in the town cemetary and descended into a hidden tunnel. There they caught up with Sir Samson and joined him in busting Prince Edward out of jail. Before they could escape, however, the sorceress Ramue caught up and, following a rather silly contest of wills in which everyone is grateful neither of them can dance, Sir Samson was cursed and Ramue teleported away to plan how she would enjoy hunting him down at a later date. (second deep breath)
Then we had to meet up with Samson and Edward at the border where the group, unfortunately, needed some timely intervention to avoid an early end to their journey due to Ramue's wrath. Percy decided to be a hero and stay behind to break the gate separating Marion from the wildnerness beyond so Bandore couldn't follow, Ramue shrugged her shoulders and went home, and the group advanced to the valleys between Marion and Zalagoon. After a trip through the wilderness the group made it to Zalagoon to beg for help only to find the royal advisor, Glade, was having none of their shenanigans. They had to trudge through the game's sewer level to meet up with Sir Bison, retainer of Edward's aunt and current queen of Zalagoon Scarlet, setting the party up for the inevitable plot-advancing meeting after Samson failed Glade's test of strength to prove our identities. In that meeting we were told "Go south young protagonists!" and given a magical bean that's supposed to save the day or something down the road.
That brings us up to speed. Mostly. Now let's turn around and have some fun with a walk-through-walls code to poke around in places we're not supposed to get into.
Of course that means the first place we run to is the room in the Cave of Spirits that seems to have no function other than eye candy. Once the screen is scrolled beyond what the player would see if they weren't cheating it becomes obvious the room isn't quite finished.
Walking north we find a few more tiles on the upper layer that are black out of bounds filler but nothing else.
And here's the background scrolled to where it's most visible. Where are Finn and Steiner, you ask? Well they're actually off screen to the north. This is as far up as the scrolling here will go but without a defined boundary we can just walk right off the screen.
Speaking of scrolling I also used walk-through-walls to sneak into Marion Castle at the beginning of the game. I did this because way back in update 6 we could see soldiers patrolling on the battlements but we couldn't reach them.
Getting into the castle itself was a little tricky because the code I was using made the game put Finn waaaaaay off screen to the south. I used walk-through-walls to go directly from staring at the guards on the ground level to the door up on the battlements, then turned the code off and went through the door. What is shown in the screenshot above is where the game put me every time I entered this same area.
At first I thought I was just going to be stuck because the castle proper shares a bit of code with the dungeons and if you haven't done the prison break script yet Samson tells you that you can't leave. It's nothing special - it's just a check the devs put in so that when you get into the dungeons the first time with Samson you can't then turn around and go back to the tunnel until you free Edward. (When I was playing I forgot about it which is why it isn't shown in that update. Whoops!) Anyway, as I was trying to move Finn north or west to get him on screen a message from Samson kept popping up thanks to triggers I couldn't see but kept walking over. Using the walk-through-walls code also walks through triggers. Flipping that back on, pressing up, then opening my menu to trigger the code hook brought Finn on screen after roughly a minute of waiting.
As for the soldiers I wanted to reach, well I did but there are no screenshots because there's nothing to tell. They walk along their programmed routes, have no dialogue, and cannot be interacted with. They are essentially just a bit of window dressing. I did check the locked tower that we saw but couldn't reach in update 9 and the door behind the guard is indeed locked. There will be no spoilers on the mystery prisoner, however, because even with the right key the room turns out to be empty this early in the game.
Finally, to anyone trying this stunt on their own be very careful about entering the dungeons. If you walk down from the castle the game might do what it did to me - which is that it got confused on what graphics were supposed to be loaded and what script was supposed to be running and got itself locked into an unbreakable loop of garbage that required a savestate reload.
And just because I could I also ran over to the Border Church still without actually rescuing Edward and found Samson and Edward waiting by the shrine anyway. Samson, however, apparently fares better in his rescue attempt if you break causality because he gets not-cursed back to level 1 but is otherwise just fine.
Underneath the church we can find some blocks tucked in a corner that handle animating the portcullis and lever. This sort of thing is common in older games and Beyond the Beyond is no exception.
And as another example here's some door animation tiles tucked away in a corner of the border inn map. I don't plan to show all the instances of this in the game - just the more interesting occasions.
Down in the Marion Dungeons (provided we aren't breaking the universe via Time Paradox) we can find tons of animated tiles tucked away in the darkness of the east side. A screenshot can't convey this but some of these actually are animated in game. Also, wandering around out of bounds makes me wonder if this map wasn't redrawn several times because there a ton of impassable tiles just sitting out in the darkness for no apparent reason.
Continuing onward we find the screen where we had to cross between trees sports a lovely shade of red on the upper layer just beyond the camera scrolling bounds.
That same screen has an open treasure chest just sitting out in the void to the south. Also pictured: the background is programmed to repeat down there and the way it slowly scrolls as you move causes a nasty optical illusion that the character has suddenly slowed way down. It is a beautiful background, to be sure, but the effect is headache-inducing.
Inside the west tree (and a couple floors in the east tree for good measure) we can find that the floors are still labeled in the lower right corner. This was probably done when they were drawn to keep it clear which floor was which. Since I'm using a composite screenshot some explanation is in order.
- We start in the lower right corner of the second floor where a 2F is barely visible. (bottom right of the composite above)
- When I went up to the next floor and checked the lower right corner the 3F seen on the upper right side of the shot above was visible.
- After that I ascended to the fourth floor and found in the lower left corner the same 3F but a bit more visible. This was not just a cosmetic thing, either. I couldn't scroll the screen any further but it is clear there's some overlapping in the way the floors are programmed. I didn't have random encounters disabled and found that if I was attacked on the left/west side of the screen vertical to that 3F the result was that after the battle I would be moved to the right/east side of the floor below. This was actually rather handy because it made getting down the east tree (the one that's all pits, for those who have forgotten) much faster.
Speaking of the east tree, I did think to check the pit that we couldn't reach because we dropped to the chest. I don't think there's any way to actually reach this pit without cheating but all it leads to is a web that bounces the party back up.
Down in the Zalagoon sewers we can find the animation sequence for the sliding door tucked offscreen along with floor tiles that are probably there so the artist animating this was sure things were lined up properly.
I also found this odd little bridge south of the entrance. This is probably just a bit drawn in before the stage layout was finalized. Finn is actually standing under Steiner, under the bridge, in what the game thinks is a water tile surrounded on all sides by impassable darkness.
Zalagoon has a big collection of fun stuff sitting in the darkness south of town. This is just a sample. There are also tables, signs, parts of walls, etc. scattered about. I'm not sure what exactly the stone structure above Finn is supposed to be but I'm pretty sure it's not actually used in game.
Zalagoon Castle also gets in the act with some door animation tiles tucked away in a corner. I'm not entirely sure what all the tiles are for but I guess to animate both the door opening/closing and shadows. After some testing after initially writing up this segment (read: running around opening doors in the castle) I'm not even sure the animation frames are actually used. If they are they are played faster than I can see. Given how unfinished Zalagoon as a whole feels they probably aren't used due to time constraints.
Since that brings us up to speed with where the team is at in the story thus far we'll stop there.
Why has so much dialogue been added?
Some readers might be asking "Abaxa, why did you add so much dialogue?" Well first because just copy-pasting NPC dialogue from my transcripts is kind of boring and reduces walking around town to some fragmented bits of talking that irk my sense of narrative flow. Besides, by fleshing that stuff out to fuller conversations I get plenty of chances for the characters to show some personality. This is a narrative playthrough after all and the whole point is to tell a story and keep it interesting. Well, that and filling in plot holes.
For example, Advisor Glade got a villainous upgrade by making him an Asshole With a Point rather then just a wall to divert the plot away from Marion for awhile. It turns the situation in Zalagoon from a wallbanger-worthy But Thou Must into a believable set of concerns about how precarious the situation in the kingdom really is with the king understandably worried about committing a large portion of his army fighting an enemy who has, in the past, been openly hostile to them and has defeated them before. Remember, Bandore invaded Zalagoon years ago and was only repelled because Marion joined Zalagoon's side. With Bandore having rather easily crushed Marion's army it is no surprise the king of Zalagoon would be hesitant to attack Bandore. Bandore does actually have a navy and we will (briefly) see it later while Marion and Zalagoon apparently do not. If the king of Zalagoon sends most of his army to Marion he leaves his kingdom vulnerable. Hell, Bandore troops have already blatantly crossed the border and encroached on Zalagoon's territory. The king might very well think his only option is to fortify the capital and hope his army can win in a seige.
That and I can have a running gag of Steiner freaking NPCs out. I have to have some comedy to ease up the serious issues.
I also add dialogue because so much of Beyond the Beyond is actually non-verbal. Here's my transcript for the scene in Update 11 right after Percy leaves the party to demonstrate what I mean by that.
>>group shudders, Samson steps toward the gate
Samson: That was a foolish... but extremely brave thing to do!
Edward: Percy, proud son of Galahad, your name will not be forgotten.
Samson: *walks ahead of group* Shall we go? We shouldn't let Percy's sacrifice be in vain.
>>Edward steps next to Samson, Steiner flies in front of Annie then to Samson's side, Finn walks around to face Annie, Finn nods, Annie shakes her head, Samson & Edward shudder, Finn nods, Annie turns around & shakes her head, group shudders, Finn runs around Annie to face her & nods, Annie turns away to wall & shudders then turns back to Finn & nods, Edward & Samson jump for joy, Finn walks next to Annie to face Samson, Finn nods, Samson & Edward nod, Finn approaches Annie & nods, Annie faces Finn & nods, group reforms
This is the sort of thing that doesn't come across in screenshots. The gist is that Annie is upset. Edward and Samson want to press on but she's holding back because of what just happened (which I interpreted as her being hurt and pissed off). Finn has to comfort her and talk her into continuing their journey. So, although it wasn't a direct line-for-move translation I turned that block of silent movements into dialogue to convey the same emotions.
The Road Not Taken
What if I had done things differently? What if Finn was controlled by an unscrupulous entity who had reality warping powers and who used those powers for silly things like skipping events? Well we're about to find out what would happen.
First Finn goes through the opening cutscene and the sequence of scripted battles in the Cave of Spirits. We need to do this to enable random encounters on the overworld. I tried doing this at level 1 and it was a no-go. There are required battles Finn has to be able to win. At least Marion Town offers an easy +4 defense with the Leather Plate and Ring of Defense. With some XP and cash from the cave under his belt Finn grabs the aforementioned gear and grinds another level by the castle.
Then he triggers the scene where Samson appears so he can get into the tunnel under the graveyard. When the bats appear to initiate battle the game makes Annie's sprite bolt to the left offscreen.
Another reason to grind a bit before coming here - the bats put people to sleep with their critical hits. The timer on sleep resets if you get hit by the effect again meaning it is possible to end up with a character who gets to do nothing. These fights weren't dangerous thanks to my preparations but the sleeping made it tedious. I had to make the run a couple of times, however, to make sure I wasn't missing anything and Finn wasn't always so lucky. There's a reason bats are still Finn's #1 hated monster.
This also reinforces observations I had during previous playthroughs that Beyond the Beyond would be very hard to solo run without outright cheating. Enemies aren't particularly tough one on one but there's just enough nastiness to kill a solo character with the slightest misstep or bit of bad luck.
In other news the game poofs Annie and Percy into the scene for their dialogue and rock pushing. They then promptly vanish until the next scene that requires their presence. Doing this cannot be good for the world's space-time continuum.
And that is how Finn and Samson challenged the mighty Bandore Army all on their own. By challenged I, of course, mean that Finn stood around hiding behind his shield while Samson made this a 1 round fight by immediately critting one soldier for 38 damage then killing the other two on counterattacks when they tried to avenge their fallen buddy. Yup, they continued their streak of always attacking Samson.
Surprisingly neither of the counterattacks were critical hits. Oh well. They were still enough to one round the Bandore Redshirts. Being in the front row this time instead of chucked into the back where I usually leave him helps.
We also found out that Bandore did in fact do something useful during their week of partying hard. Someone thought to change the locks. Good for them! Nobody tell Percy about this! Oh yeah and the Marion soldier who gets caught appears here even if you didn't talk to them in town. I have no idea how that works since they don't run off to storm the dungeons until you speak with them but it is what it is.
With our hijinks we can also find that staring a king straight in the eyes constitutes as "nothing out of the ordinary" for Finn. As if that wasn't odd enough Finn can just walk through said king like he didn't exist. Oh, Beyond the Beyond, you and your not coding collision data or dialogue for NPCs we shouldn't even be trying to talk to in the first place.
[That's not everything, however, so in the next half we depart on a journey of mystery and gameshark abuse in the time-honored quest to try to break the game.]
