Reply To: Revisiting Albion
Right. So I’ve done the optional treasure cave now – I see what you mean, and I’ve got to admit that I was wrong about Maini. I described it as awful – it is instead absolutely wretched D:
The treasure cave is… something else. Hundreds of little nooks, all of which look exactly the same, made virtually innavigable with the decorative stalagmites and the supremely awkward constantly looking up and down to see the ceiling or floor to travel between the pits. The monster parties are just relentlessly boring and Angel Summoner Sira can deal with them single-handedly between rests and an unhealthy number of potions.
I counted what I think are exactly 38 pairs of pits to fall down/climb across five floors of monotony, noting them down until I had exhausted the English alphabet and used a few letters from Greek and Cyrillic as well. Anyone is welcome to use my map – I never want to see it again. (This isn’t even all of it, I ran out of room and had to draw a further seven caves on the back of the sheet.)
Did you also notice something strange with the movement in the 3D worlds in this chapter of the game? Between the three earlier dungeons and the Kounos basement and here, the viewpoint height is adjusted to make spaces seem smaller or larger without actually altering their scale. This also (feels like it) comes with altering the speed at which you move through the dungeons, making it difficult to judge where you are without referring to the map constantly. It’s very strange.
