#bootleggaming — Public Fediverse posts

Oh! I got distracted and forgot to post the ending.

Yep. That's it. You beat the boss, get 0 EXP, 0 gold, 0 items, and then the screen fades to black before giving you an end screen. No dialogue, no return to the kingdom, 0 use for any gold you find deep inside the last area of the game. Absolute cinema.

Sarcasm aside, it wasn't *that* bad of a game. It just felt like the difficulty of enemies scales up faster than it really should have and the EXP they give you didn't scale alongside that. And if that turns you off from wanting to play this game, that's completely understandable.

This is made me want to go back and try out another Tian Cai Xiao Zi RPG in the hopes that maybe, it'll be more like Final Fantasy: Unlimited Saga and less like Qing Huang Ba Ye (秦皇霸業).

And remember, stay funky fresh. 5/10.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Finally, we've reached the final boss (which was actually tough unlike other plot related bosses). Lots of HP and could one-shot party members. It made me wish I grinded more, but the high HP of random enemies at this point combined with the minuscule EXP they provided just wasn't worth it. Instead, I employed the same strategy as with the weapon mini-bosses. I repeatedly revived whoever had died the previous turn cycle over and over again.

At first, I was confused when the final boss died and I got 0 EXP and gold. I don't care if it's the end, give me that EXP.

Instead, it transforms into a second form. It was more of the same really, just stall with reviving until it died and gave 0 EXP and gold *again*.

It then revealed a third form, which was the exact same with the same drops. At this point I was expecting a fourth form, but nope, I defeated it!

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Well, here we are. The final area of the game. It has the same aesthetic as the place we were trapped in when we exposed the controlled king.

It's got two new enemies I haven't seen elsewhere too. A head with tail thing, and a red demon in a speedo. I had to go back and check if the demon had been a previous boss turned regular enemy but I've never seen it before.

Unfortunately, much like the aforementioned area there is *another* warp maze. I hate mazes in RPGs, not the same thing as exploration. Thankfully though there are only two parts to it and I got the first part done in a single guess. Unthankfully I tried every option but one before I got the right teleporter in the second part. It also doesn't help that the second part involved long winding paths for no reason other than to fill your life with random encounters.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Ah, the second to last boss (I think), the person who revives the great evil big bad. They had little health compared to the previous four mini-bosses which really does continue the trend of story relevant bosses being weak for whatever reason.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

The second part of the ruins contains two swords which are probably the ultimate weapons for the warrior and rogue.

They are similarly guarded though I was sort of expecting one yellow dragon instead of two red ones.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

In the first part of the ruins, you find two staves which I assume are the ultimate weapons for the White and Black Mages.

Both are guard by dragons which are a serious uptick in strength compared to previous bosses. Those bosses certainly lulled me into a false sense of security. The good thing is that they only attack once per turn meaning I can just continually revive on person to not fall behind in human shields.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Well, here it is, the final area of the game (probably). Found on a tiny island near the second town of the game totally surrounded by mountains forcing us to use the airship. We're supposed to prevent the dragon(?) from being resurrected aga... is that a Dimensional Shoyru?

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

So the game has you pick up a magical mirror before you pick up the last item needed to unseal(?) the evil(?) dragon(?). I must admit, I haven't paid *too* much attention to the story so I'm unsure.

Anyways, the king is revealed to be possessed by something evil and it eats you, sending you to another world. This area kind of reminds me of a combination of Moonside, Magicant, and The Cave of the Past from Earthbound as you walk around a desolate area with random teleports around that eventually lead to a boss fight with... whatever that is.

After his(?) defeat we are returned to the real world where the king gives us an item that allows us to unseal the presumably final area.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Ran into another difficult trapped chest miniboss. The regular bosses are starting to catch up to them (or they're getting easier, I can't tell because I can't see damage dealt).

Also, the eleventh boss is the same as the tenth one.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Fighting the tenth boss (which is just a recolored third boss >.>) yields great rewards! Specifically you get the airship (or as the translation seems to say, a spaceship) which is really cool and convenient. The only issue is that it treats you as if you are still "walking" or "sailing" when encountering enemies rather than having unique flying enemies (or none as I would have preferred).

Perhaps we have to go to the moon a la Final Fantasy IV? We'll see I suppose.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

The good thing though is that when you speak to the king here he blesses you (or the dragon god does or something? I thought we were trying to keep a dragon from being unsealed?).

The bad thing is that you still kind of suck.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Finally visiting the castle that had a wall of light blocking the wall. I think they messed up with some of the stuff in the castle.

The first thing is that doors don't open when you pass through them, and the second thing is that when you go up the stairs to the throne room your character looks like they're in the wall because that's where the warp tile is set.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Two winged kangaroos (I think) as the collective ninth boss. Just focus fire using your Warrior and Thief's special attacks on each and both go down super easy as unfortunately expected.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Beating the eighth boss gives you access to the eye of a fire dragon which allows you to walk across the snow in this island. My best guess is that it keeps you from freezing to death as you travel. I was hoping to get a snowcraft like in Final Fantasy II but oh well haha.

Also, for some reason I only just realized my screenshots were lacking in color and brightness until I reached the snow area. I restarted my Pocket Dock and recaptured that particular screenshot but the rest are doomed to not look as good unfortunately.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Another trapped chest miniboss that's stronger than the actual bosses.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

The sixth and seventh bosses are the same. In-fact they even had the same regular enemies backing them up. The only thing making the seventh harder was the fact that they had a third minion (not pictured cuz I forgot to screenshot it at the beginning).

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

I've been tricked! This chest is empty! It was so empty there wasn't even any in-game dialogue!

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

As I mentioned with my previous post, the bosses are... lacking. These two bosses both fell after being hit by my Warrior's special attack like twice. They only have a little more HP than normal enemy and give lousy amounts of EXP for a boss. Considering some bosses show up as normal enemies soon-ish, this could have been done as a balancing thing so you don't end up running into random encounters that are too hard.

This is the time to mention that the scaling of the enemies, equipment, rewards, etc. have not really been great. Normal enemies take more than two hits to take out (without using any special moves) which is a great opportunity for the enemies to really rack up the damage against you. Need I mention you can't heal using magic outside of battle. Yeah.

The only saving grace is that running is basically a 100% chance no matter what you're up against (minus bosses). I've yet to fail out so far.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Bit of a spoiler, this random "boss" from a trapped chest I ran into is harder than any future boss I've fought thus far while writing this post.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Finally, a ship!

...And I immediately get wrecked.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

On my way back to the starting town where the king is, I passed by this strange wall. Before I just assumed it was a design choice but I remembered the secret passage from earlier. Yup, it's another secret passage with treasure!

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

The third boss died so quickly I forgot to screenshot the fight haha. They unfortunately get away with the National Treasure we bring as ransom but we do rescue the princess we've been trying to save this whole time. For some reason she says nothing when we talk to her and she simply disappears as if we picked up an item.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Heyo! The first enemy to take up two spots!

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Grinded a ton before fighting the third boss. Nothing drops a stat increasing item here so all I have is normal level ups. The boss nearly chewed me up and spat me out, one-shotting the Thief and Black Mage. Turns out I only need to hit about 4-5 times using my Warrior's special attack so I decided to restart and block as much as possible in order to make sure all my party members received equal EXP.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Thought this was a graphical glitch, but no! It was in-fact a secret passage to items. One was trapped... with a beginning enemy so it was ultra easy.

Also the fact that you can't see yourself in the void is a tiny bit annoying.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Second boss absolutely wrecked me, one hit KOs all around. I had to grind levels and an item that permanently increases your max HP in order to take the hits. It doesn't help that I had to buy a bunch of healing items as well as my White Mage couldn't keep up with healing even one person by themselves.

And yet, after all of that I got like 2.5x the amount of EXP I'd get from a normal encounter anyways (and this is including 2 regular enemies that spawn alongside the boxx). Not only that, I didn't even get to rescue the princess I was supposed to and the surviving partner instead demanded a ransom of the kingdom's national treasure getting away.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

The first boss battle is fairly easy as expected. It was just 3 different kinds of goblins.

Bonus, when you run from a battle (which I haven't failed yet so maybe it's guaranteed?) the enemy sprites briefly change color. The top left always seems to turn blue and white so please enjoy the smurf with a sword.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Chests only open *after* you've received the item. Much much better than not working at all like in that TCXZ RPG I played.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #BootlegGaming | #FinalFantasy | #Sintax | #FinalFantasyUnlimitedSaga

Definitely took me some trouble dumping this game #bootlegs #bootleggaming #romhacking

I have come across a fairly rare ROM hack of Tekken 3.

"TEKKEN 3 от Golden Leon" is a ROM hack of Tekken 3 described with "extra 23 characters and much more".

There seems to be 2 variations of this ROM, being one with Russian and English UI.

I finally got the English ROM, dumped from a disc I got from a neighbour labelled "Tekken 4".

You can find the Russian ROM somewhere on Reddit, but I haven't found anyone dumping the English version, so I did it myself.

https://archive.org/details/tekken-3-ot-golden-leon

There's a couple gameplay videos of the ROM hack itself but it never really matched the dump I have, so this one is definitely unique. Took me a while to dump since the disc was badly scratched, cdrdao was definitely struggling and I finally managed to dump it using an ASUS external DVD drive. #bootlegs #bootleggaming #romhacking

Mom, can we have Gallade?

No, we have Gallade at home.

Gallade at home:

By the way, this is yet another time where I can't find the original art at all, I tried reverse image searching the art on the cart (that's Meganium and Typhlosion mega stretched at the bottom) but nothing shows up.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection

If you go to Town1 postgame you can talk to the camper who tells you that his tent was destroyed by a Zoid.

After giving the daily weather report, you fight it and find that it has turned from blue to purple for some reason. A GBC exclusive game shouldn't be so limited in color palette where this was necessary? I think?

For the time being I don't plan to post anymore Perfect Silver 2002 screenshots. There's still a few postgame things to do but I've decided to move onto a different game for now.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

Okay first of all, if this bonus boss flies, why did they stick it in a cave? Shouldn't they have put it somewhere else?

Second, how does it fly? Can't be with wings because those do not look like flyable wings. Maybe it uses thrusters or something instead.

Third, if it can't fly properly then how come I still can't hit it with physical attacks?

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

Well, I *only* just realized after beating the whole game that you can change the color of your Zoid on one of the status screen pages. It came help differentiate your caught Zoid if you happen to be fighting the exact same wild Zoid.

Plus you get to look cool.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

Must be young at heart.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

I've noticed that for some reason the post-game bosses seem to just defend a lot if you break both of their weapons. You'd expect them to attack more often with their default attack but I guess not.

I don't know why but my only speculation is that the game still chooses to use the broken weapons but can't so switches to defending instead? They still do attack and break your weapons on occasion so maybe not. Dunno, but it sure makes them a lot easier given they all have like a gazillion HP and do a lot more damage compared to you.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

You can also find and recruit previous bosses. One is found later in a previously locked door, but this one is just chilling on a cliffside.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Zoids | #PokemonPerfectSilver2002

To take a break from Perfect Silver, I'd like to take a quick look at this Taiwanese translation hack of Pokemon Yellow. It appears to be an early version of a lesser known Chinese translation hack. I hope I can find a copy of the possibly newer version to compare this with.

A fellow collector informed me that this translation was actually produced by Vast Fame. Now, I don't know about that personally but I do trust them as they know a lot more than me.

On the Analogue Pocket it boots in black and white... which actually makes sense as the Japanese version of the game (which this is built on) doesn't have the same GBC enhancements the other region releases have. Thankfully I can apply a palette to it. However, if you load it in the SGB core you can fully see the rainbow-ish sparkles in the opening "credits".

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #GameboyColor | #GBC | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonYellow | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection

I've never seen a game, official or otherwise, that did this. There's a square hole in the board and the chip is kind of just hovering in it. What's up with that?

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming

Can someone tell me where this Bellossom featured on this multicart menu comes from? It doesn't seem to be from the end credits of GS or the battle sprites. Is this from Puzzle Challenge or something? Somewhere else?

By the way, no Pokemon games on this. Seems it was fairly common to use Pokemon to advertise multicarts because of how popular and recognizable they were.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon

Another fake pirate translation of Silver. This time it's masquerading as Pikachu Inc. but it's actually just HC Translations again. They even mimicked the title style which is interesting.

Although nothing super super exciting, it is still interesting nonetheless. Is it possible the people who made this made the fake Vida Translations Silver as well?

It's also too bad that I'm unable to extract it off the multicart it came on.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonSilver

Well I've now defeated Lance, but I do intend to go through Kanto at some point. I'm not sure if it'll be immediately, I kind of want to take a break from trying to get through an RPG (even one as familiar and documented as Pokemon) in a language I cannot read, let alone one that is undocumented due it being an unofficial translation.

At least as far as I've seen, everything has been normal apart from being able to teach Sudowoodo Fly which is amazing. It's not been used for battling all too much but the flying tree has been my mascot for this playthrough.

That's enough Pokemon monster emerald 2008 for the time being.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

The Festival Fly (read: Sacred Ash, I think) is kind of... glitchy.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

I know it's just one, two, and three in Chinese, but it just looks funny that it's just a bunch of horizontal lines in the elevator menu.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

Someone please explain why the hell Sudowoodo can learn Fly in this translation hack but Farfetch'd can't?? I guess I'm flying around on the back of a tree now.

EDIT: To clarify an error I made, turns out Farfetch'd did learn Fly but somehow I didn't notice. This doesn't change the fact that Sudowoodo somehow got the ability to fly in the bootleg.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

So the hack I'm playing seems to be limited to two characters per Pokemon name due to screen space which certainly makes everything a challenge.

That being said, I'd like to bring your attention to two of my favorite Pokemon, Espeon and Umbreon and their bootleg names.

Espeon is 天天 which translates to "everyday", but I'm assuming it's meant to play off of 白天 which is "daytime".

However Umbreon appears to be 雷鸟 which translates to "thunder bird". I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean, it doesn't sound like the English or Japanese names. It's clearly not a bird (and if you know the games it's a Dark type). Is this supposed to be a direct reference to a Thunderbird? I have no clue.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

The Quick Claw apparently translates as 灼灼灼, which according to Google Translate means "Burning". Maybe it's a text representation of flame car decals.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

I guess routes can use the big numbers though.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

A lot of numbers in this translation hack use the original numbers which look tiny next to the larger Chinese characters. I haven't been paying special attention, but it looks like exclamation marks after Chinese characters are larger and after numbers are the normal sized ones.

Also I'm not sure why they put an exclamation mark after Magnitude?

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold

Been continuing to play Pokemon monster emerald 2008. There isn't as much fuckery with the names glitching, but there is still some. Context: I have not nicknamed any of my Pokemon at all.

For example, the first character in your first Pokemon's name when the party is full gets replaced with a "?" in the party menu (though I've seen it not happen while switching out after knocking an opponent's Pokemon out).

Another example on this same screen is that Quilava's second character in his name is usually this weird set of vertical lines. Why? I don't know.

Sidenote: I've never caught a Ditto in Gen 2 since I never try completing the Pokedex in the older games and it's relative rarity. It's got a unique sprite (unsurprisingly) and honestly it's kinda goofy.

#Nintendo | #Gameboy | #RetroGameCollecting | #GameCollection | #BootlegGaming | #Pokemon | #PokemonGold