Roxie continues her journey across a small section of Toronto and the various time and space warps within. This time we won’t just be finding instruments, we’ll be rescuing Scott’s band mates as well. But on top of that, we’ll also be meeting a trio that’s been operating behind the scenes…
It’s time for Chapter 11, and for us to finally get that Lao plotline resolved. By which I mean he woke up from his coma and decided to immediately become an issue.
… Well, that’s a bummer.
Right, so Alex was released half a week after this stream. You may have heard a few things about him and his life choices after that. And I’m just going to say, nothing we see in this session is particularly relevant to his alleged marriage partner, but going in with that knowledge has certainly colored my response to him, even if he’s been relatively normal so far!
The end is nigh; we’ve met all three of Gideon’s future babies, and it seems like they’re the ones causing trouble in Toronto. But what of Metal Scott, who has set Stephen’s house on fire, and whose identity is still a mystery? Well, there’s still fighting to do so I’m sure we’ll figure it out eventually.
We’re still on the trail of that new character, and after a few missions with no results, I change up my strategy a bit: I just look up what we’re supposed to do. And indeed, finding this person involves completing a completely different quest line. So, today we’ll be altering the mind of an orb so we can figure out where the trio of xenos that control every other member of their race are hanging out. You know, as you do.
Today, we wrap up Alex’s stuff, and just about everything we can do in World Tour mode, too. You’re probably well-aware of Alex and his weird cousin situation already, but did you know that his neck of the woods also has a storyline about ~wrestling embezzlement?~ Well, now you do.
Today, we begin Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Mario and his friends (and some stragglers) have arrived in the Flower Kingdom to… I dunno, watch Prince Florian do a little jig, or something. But of course, we wouldn’t be watching this happen if Bowser wasn’t about to arrive to cause trouble! This time around, Bowser has combined himself with Florian’s castle, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more excited in his life. But he’s being a public menace, so it’s up to Mario Princess Daisy to stop him!
We’re still looking for that new character! Thankfully, Definian Downfall’s done so we have the major hurdle out of the way. But boy, they do not give you any hints as to where they are. But we’ll stumble into them eventually… and they’ll bring up the probing incident nobody asked about a suspicious number of times.
Are you familiar with Mario Party? Well, discard most of what you know about it because this is Mario Party Advance. Forgoing the usual boards and friendship-ruining competition, Mario Party Advance is a single player experience that is mostly for a young audience, and is only mildly aggravating compared to games in the series proper. We arrive at Party World, but Bowser quickly invades and ruins the whole thing, forcing us to have one of four characters drive around the city in a car and collect all the minigames and gadgets Bowser denied us. Today, Mario takes a leisurely drive around town and learns the ins and outs of the game. He also joins the mafia, but lets not dwell on that.
Today, we finish up World 1 and head on to the next. But along the way we get to visit some nice tropical isles and see where Castle!Bowser is hanging out. Naturally, he’s having a great time bring a castle, and would really prefer not to be interrupted. The same can be said of his son, who’s climbed the highest peak and taken in the beauty of the world below him. Let’s hope that means he’s found inner peace and won’t fight us once we reach him.
With Mia back home safe, we can get back to the other sidequests on the docket. We’ve got some work to do with some Wrothians, but there are a few other jobs as well. For one, we might finally find that legendary Nopon blade. I know that seems unlikely at this point, but we’ve scoured just about every other rock on Mira so maybe we’ll end this questline with a success.
Mario continues his eternal drive around town. Many crimes happen in this one, which means we meet Shroomlock. Will he solve any mysterious? He says he figures them all out, but Mario’s always the first one to actually declare the solutions out loud.
We approach the top of the mountain, which means we’ll have to face off against Bowser Jr. again. The same might not be true about World 3, though. Instead of Bowser Jr. taking over the joint, we’re greeted by Master Poplin, who wants us to climb the waterfall before claiming the Royal Seed. Which I figured we’d be doing anyway, but it’s nice to see a friendly face, at least.
Are you ready for another Wroth day? Because a lot of these sidequests involve everyone’s favorite lion warriors. In fact, most of what we cover today has to do with Gi Zang. Remember that one guy we dueled a while ago? Yeah him. Turns out he has quite the extensive substory. And hopefully there are no bad choices to make that would cut his life short.
We’ve been using Mario for a while now, and I tire of him. So once we’re done with the next Bowser quest, why don’t we try using someone else? Well, there is one reason: Koopa Kid might really hate my next pick.
We made it partway up the waterfall last time, and now it’s time to complete that climb! Of course, passing Master Poplin’s challenges is one thing, but afterwards it’s back to dealing with Bowser Jr. And I hope you had your fill of water from World 3, because now we’re going to a desert, and Bowser’s child has claimed ownership over every drop of water he can find. Truly, this child is the embodiment of greed.
We’re winding down on the remaining sidequests before Chapter 12. And before we hit the (original) end of the game, we’ve got a bizarre parent and child situation, a weapons test gone horribly wrong, and Phog pointing a gun at a living being. Oh, and remember the Celeste Three from way back when? Yeah we finally get around to looking for that vault’s fourth key. Hopefully nobody else thinks I care about this vault more than I actually do!
We’re getting down to the last missions of the game as Peach takes the lead and just kinda runs with it. We’ve got to contend with gambling, ghosts, and curling amongst other things, but as long as we keep winning minigames there’s not much worry that we’ll run out of gas anytime soon.
World 4 continues as Daisy makes her way through the desert and the citadel that Bowser Jr. has occupied. The wretched child seems to have little respect for the differences between pool-ready water and drinking water, but the people of this country are flowers anyway so maybe they won’t mind turtle-water too much.
At last, we’ve begun the final operation to secure the Lifehold core. Of course, the Ganglion aren’t going to take this lying down. They’ve begun an assault on the core, one which surely would have finished us already if the core didn’t have a shield. But with humanity coming so close to recovering their bodies, even the Ganglion leader Luxaar is looking to join the fight.