Wario Land 3 - With input from Samus

[Ashan]

I'm pretty sure he figured that out considering he was navigating up those jumps in dizzy state

[FPzero]

It looked like that but another part of the vid made me think maybe he didn't because he was complaining about how he kept going away from progress, so I popped it in a spoiler just in case.

[J. J. W. Mezun]

So if you've seen the 100% TAS for this game, you're probably wondering why it does a soft reset immediately after the autosave for getting the Magical Seed. Well, that has to do with a bug in one of the three levels the seed affects. For whatever reason, if you've been playing through the game in one sitting (or, in emulation, been using savestates),

attempting to get the treasure in W3 that is made available by the Magical Seed is impossible because the screen exit at the top of the beanstalk doesn't get set by the event properly.

Simply doing a soft reset is enough to fix it. This means it's very unlikely that the bug will show up in casual play.

I didn't know till now that that was in the real copy o' the game. I always thought that was some form o' antipiracy. Looking @ it now, that doesn't make any sense, ¿as who would make an antipiracy feature so weak it could be defeated by simply resetting the game?

[Ashan]

I thought it was pretty funny when raocow referred to the guy with the invisibility potions as "Professor Science" but I was just reading the back of the box that shows up when you Google search the game, and apparently his name is "Mad Scienstein" which is pretty close:

[Sebby19]

I wanted to start this earlier, but drama happened. But it's back now, "Story time, with Wario Land... THREE!!!" First I just get the opening out of the way, and then onto the meat of the story

How we got here...
Wario was out flying his plane, when suddenly it just breaks down and falls right out of the sky (forget to gas it up, Wario?). He lands in the middle of a forest. Unhurt, thankfully. Probably still under the effect of immortality Wario must have gotten from the Genie, along with his castle.
Wario doesn't need to wander long, before finding small cave, with a curious little Music Box. It looks like there is a little world inside it. Suddenly, the music box glows brightly, and he's transported inside!
Waking up in some dark tunnel, a mysterious figure asks for Wario's help. He was the protector of the music box land, until an evil wizard locked away the being's powers. The mysterious figure will be able to return Wario to the real world once his power returns. That can be done by bringing 5 other Music Boxes back to the temple. Wario was also told he can keep any other treasures he finds along the way.
Now you got Wario's attention. Go forth from the temple Wario! Search the Music Box land for the other 5 Music Boxes, so you can return home, rich(er)!

[Sebby19]

Story time! With Wario Land 3...

The chain of deals...
Setting out from The Temple, on the North side of the world, Wario head into the nearby forest: Out of the Woods, a relatively peaceful place. Unfortunately, Wario can't do a whole lot. He didn't take all the special gear he had in Wario Land II on his plane trip, so a lot of potential paths in the forest are not possible. Wario will have to rely on the treasures he finds, to get through the land.

The 1st treasure he finds is The Ax of Destruction. With it, he cuts down a large tree, creating a forest exit, so it can finally live up to its namesake. From there, Wario has the choice of going to two places. First is The Peaceful Village, a small town with only a few houses (with plumbing!) lining a street. And it is pretty peaceful... during the day. The second location is The Vast Plain, a flat grassland... if you ignore all the big holes leading to the caves below. After putting away the Ax (it is a treasure, don't want to break it), Wario navigates both places, and finds mysterious slates. Turn out, they are the left and right halves of the Colorless Mountain Slate. Putting both sides into a slot on the mountain's door opens the way inside. Inside the Colorless Mountain, everything is black and white. Wario notices a small tower with the word 'Game' above a door. He ignores it for now though, as on the otherside of the Colorless Mountain is the West side of the word.

[Sebby19]

Story time! With Wario Land 3...

The chain of deals...
The first area Wario comes across in the west is some Desert Ruins. Either side has two temples with strong links to the sun and moon, so Wario will need to spend a full day here, in order to enter both ruins, and obtain the Top and Bottom parts of the Tornado Calming Writing. Wario reads aloud the incantation on the parchment, and the tornado on the far side of the ruins disappears. With is gone, Wario moves on to The Volcano's Base, a very hilly place with lots of slopes to roll around on. Beating his first boss, Wario grabs some Lead Overalls, letting him Ground Pound once again. This allows Wario to access underground places, in old areas like Out of the Woods and The Vast Plain.

The Raincloud Jar is found in the woods, and summons a storm on the West side, creating The Pool of Rain, a cute little marshland; and also opens the way to A Town in Chaos, a city with many tall buildings to explore. Both hide The Cog Wheel A and The Cog Wheel B. These get an elevator on the other side of town working, giving Wario access to the top of the cliff blocking the South side.
Over the cliff is The Grasslands, a similar place to the previous plains, if a little more hilly. And the tall grass obscures the holes in the ground, how annoying. But on the other side of a huge hill lies the most important treasure yet, Wario's First Music Box! You've completed the first leg of your journey, well done!

I figure instead of giving a list of the official treasure names, I tell it in a way with a little more flavour. Also for my interpretation on what exactly is going on in those cutscenes, and give a brief descriptions of each new level.
Though J. J. W. Mezun probably has me beat on that last point, with his haikus.

Once I catch up tomorrow, these shouldn't be so long, if raocow sticks to at most 3 treasures a video.

[xnamkcor]

"Where's the red box!?" sounds like something a drunk customer might ask me at work.

[Sebby19]

How to easily get around that Fire Robot when riding the Mine Cart:

Jump Tackle


Same thing happened at the end of the vid. raocow jumped up to the same level as the catapillars, and THEN tackled. There's going to be a lot more pain if he keeps doing that.

I guess I should remind him that Duck Sliding is a thing, like it was in WLII and WL4.

And not looking ahead while golfing? Uh oh...

[J. J. W. Mezun]

014. W2 The Volcano's Base - Gray

Slow work day ~
waiting for my car,
I'm burning.


015. W3 The Pool of Rain - Red

O'ercast fall ~
shadows everywhere
on tree limbs.


016. N3 The Vast Plain - Green

Starry night ~
high up in the clouds
the moon burns.

-------------------

In this episode we see a man who just beat a kaizo jr. rom hack without save states, replaying 30-minute-long segments repeatedly, complain 'bout having to redo 3-minute-long segments 'cause he makes mistakes & doesn't get a "Press A here to win" bar in a minigolf game.

To be fair, there are a few aspects o' this game that can make it mo' problematic than e'en an SMW rom hack: 'cause this is a Game Boy Color game, the screen is small, & doesn't let one see much o' what's round them; getting hit means knockback, which makes it far mo' likely to fall into a pit; & finally, in some places Wario moves quite slowly, such as climbing up things, as raocow notes, or standing on the slowest mine cart in the world. For example, what raocow doesn't show in his playthrough o' "The Volcano's Base" is climbing that ladder & having to dodge all the weird wall lasers every time, which can get tiring.

Also, too many minigolf games. Though, I would take that minigame a few times o'er memory match & guess the # every bloody level.

Though, funny 'nough,

Wario Land 3 does let you essentially save state by allowing you to save anywhere in a level & let you reload that save. & unlike what many people imply, this "quick save" system allows you to reload the "quick save" as many times as you want. The only limit is that you can't do this during boss battles or after you 100% the game.

However, I doubt raocow would use such a tactic e'en if he knew 'bout it.

Also, you can see Wario Land 3's cohesive level themes with the way a plains level has a random pipe that leads to a sky area with a minigolf game & a water level with a beanstalk that leads to a treetop area.

Actually, this reminds me that what I like so much 'bout Wario Land 3 is somewhat similar to what raocow really likes 'bout the VIP games: e'en if it's sometimes janky & annoying ( though not nearly as mean-spirited as the VIPs ), you have to admit the game is memorable, creative, & has a lot o' charm to it. ( I haven't e'en touched on Wario Land 3 ridiculous story, though Sebby pointed out a few things, like Wario's spontaneously combusting airplane. ) While e'en I admit the 1st 2 Wario Lands are probably less annoying, they're also less memorable: levels are less designed & mo' just put there with not much thought needed to beat them. This is probably what makes them feel less janky: they have the same ( or similar for the 1st game ) bumpy physics, but they're both easy, so it's hardly noticeable.

[Nimono]

Today we get our first truly useless treasure. SURPRISE!!! You'll find more of them later.

Surprise! This is where the game starts showing its metroidvania-ish-ness. You get multiple places to go, and it's unclear what the path forward is! (Unless you check The Temple.)

[Ometeotl]

Post like a person

[FPzero]

So I've been having some idle thoughts about things you've been saying as you play. You mention that you feel like you'd rather die than have an enemy set you back and make you repeat a section. And I can understand that to some extent, but I feel like there's one key thing you're missing about that. Even if you died every time the fire guy knocked you off the minecart area, you would still have to restart the level from the beginning every time. And in the volcano level, there's almost no difference between the time needed to get back to the minecart from the start point or from falling off. There are plenty of other times in the game where you might get set back by an enemy attack transformation and have to repeat a little bit of the level, but I guarantee you having to restart the whole level over would be worse. Maybe it just comes down to personal feelings on this one, but I know I'd rather just have a little setback than a large one.

Doesn't mean these little setbacks can't be annoying however. It definitely is annoying to fall off the minecart, or out of the trees in pool of rain, or off the sky platforms in the vast plain which you managed to avoid today.

---

I'm going to leave some more detailed explanation of Golf mechanics here because you had a lot of complaints about how the system felt bad and random. Feel free to look at them if you'd like a better idea of how you can approach the minigame.

You've picked up on pressing Right to preview a shot. But you should get in a habit of using it more often than just on the tee. This is because maximum shot distance changes depending on what terrain your "ball" is sitting in and the preview will update to reflect that. Rough will shorten your distance but a little bit, and Bunker will shorten it by about half. Landing in either of these won't make your ball bounce, so you instantly lose all your topspin or backspin if you manage to make a shot with them. If you land the ball in Water or Lava, you get an O.B. and take a penalty, losing another shot. That's why when you landed in lava on the par 5, you only ended up taking 4 shots. Avoid landing in water or lava as much as possible, because you might not be able to make it to the end if you do. (That par 5 is one of the hardest courses in the game so don't feel too bad about it...)

The preview works together with your meter. The meter is one-to-one with how far the ball will fly. This means that if you preview the field and see where the guy will land, you can make judgments on how far you want the guy to go. A meter at half power will make him go halfway to the preview marker. If you survey the course and the preview says you'll overshoot the hole, you want to try and go with a less powerful shot, depending on how much you'll overshoot.

As much as possible, try and avoid dunking your ball in the Rough or Bunker. If that means you have to undershoot a shot to stay on the Green, that's ok. The distance you'll gain from taking a shot on the Green is usually greater than the distance you'll go by shooting from Rough or Bunker.

Really, the biggest tip is just to use the Preview to plan a shot, even if you just think about it for a second or two.

Of course, none of the advice addresses the elephant in the room: that the minigame is just kinda out of place for the game in general. It always breaks up the platforming action. I still like it, but I can remember playing it when I was a kid and thinking it was annoying to have to do so often.

Hopefully some of the advice helps if you choose to read it. I might've missed something, but I'm sure if I did someone else here can make a spoilered Golf Advice Part 2.

[Nimono]

Hopefully some of the advice helps if you choose to read it. I might've missed something, but I'm sure if I did someone else here can make a spoilered Golf Advice Part 2.

The main difference between Water and Lava is that Water will place the enemy on the left edge closest to the water, while Lava will reset it to EXACTLY where you shot from.

[Leet]

The way that many enemies are functionally the same as in WL2 but with weird new designs reminds me heavily of both DKC3 and romhacks (like VIP). This is a compliment of course

[Piesonscreations]

I guess raocow's main gripe with being setback by the enemies is that it takes control away from the player. Sure, it might be a minor inconvencience when looking at level progression, but mechanically, it is as if your death animation lasted for like 15 seconds every time you died in other games.
But you know, this is really comes down to how it feels. You could totally not be bothered by it as well.

[FourteenthOrder]

I guess raocow's main gripe with being setback by the enemies is that it takes control away from the player. Sure, it might be a minor inconvencience when looking at level progression, but mechanically, it is as if your death animation lasted for like 15 seconds every time you died in other games.
But you know, this is really comes down to how it feels. You could totally not be bothered by it as well.

Yeah, I was going to say something similar.

It super bothers me because of this. Wow is it ever annoying.

[Awoo]

I guess raocow's main gripe with being setback by the enemies is that it takes control away from the player. Sure, it might be a minor inconvencience when looking at level progression, but mechanically, it is as if your death animation lasted for like 15 seconds every time you died in other games.
But you know, this is really comes down to how it feels. You could totally not be bothered by it as well.

Yeah, I was going to say something similar.

It super bothers me because of this. Wow is it ever annoying.

It would definitely explain why they went back to a health based system for Wario Land 4, for sure. Seems like there's a lot of status effects that hinder more than there are helpful ones, to compensate too.

[Voltgloss]

To emphasize an even simpler problem with today's failure states, which raocow explained at 6:22: "you die in one hit all the time." It's not just about the iteration time per "death." It's also that Wario is a one-hit-point-wonder. It's like playing a Mario game where you're forced to be small Mario forever. A slower, less agile "small Mario" with a bigger hitbox.

[Sebby19]

Added the Decorative treasures (Yellow Boxes) to the Legend. Also known as Useless treasures. Today's was the Blue Bracelet. I won't be mentioning these in the next Story Times.

Well, this was a relatively simple edit. The flowchart didn't grow at all today!

[Ashan]

To emphasize an even simpler problem with today's failure states, which raocow explained at 6:22: "you die in one hit all the time." It's not just about the iteration time per "death." It's also that Wario is a one-hit-point-wonder. It's like playing a Mario game where you're forced to be small Mario forever. A slower, less agile "small Mario" with a bigger hitbox.

It's a bit of a simplification to say that. In levels like The Big Bridge where your goal is literally to just go across the bridge and touching any fish or today's situation in The Pool of Rain where falling meant redoing everything, yes that's the case. But a lot of the time it's just redoing a section of a level, or a room. Not the entire level.
I won't argue it isn't annoying, but it's not always the case that 1 hit means "redo the whole level"

[Sebby19]

One consideration I would like to point out is that if there were just spiky guys up above, raocow would have to walk back to restart. With the flamethrower bots, Fiery Wario can RUN back to start.

-You can extend the running form by jumping, since the invisible timer to go to the fireball form only goes up when on the ground. This is the same in WLII, but WL4 changed it to the 3-touch rule.
-The only difference between Fiery Wario between games 2 and 3 is that 3's is missing the high jump. In fact, all previous transformations that had high jump in 2 lost it in this game. Except Flat Wario.

[FourteenthOrder]

One consideration I would like to point out is that if there were just spiky guys up above, raocow would have to walk back to restart. With the flamethrower bots, Fiery Wario can RUN back to start.

To me, at least, falling from getting hit by the spiky balls on the track feels a bajillion times better than getting hit by the flamethrower guys and being forced to run back and forth and then wait to burn up.

[aterraformer]

Professor Science; master of savestates

[Sebby19]

Trivia: The Vast Plain is the only level with two Golf minigame doors and blocks. And they are not independent, either door can remove either block.

Story Time! With Wario Land 3!

The chain of deals...
The 1st Music Box automatically plays a little tune. This causes the nearby The Big Bridge to lower down and allow access across the river. Was this part of some ancient highway? Now that I think about it, this bridge and a modern town and village a way back suggest there must have been a recent civilization here, at one point. But where is the land's citizens? Everything is abandoned, being roamed with monsters...
None of this is on Wario's mind, however. A simple trek across the bridge, and he finds the Miracle Seed. This splits into three, and flies off into past areas: The Vast Plain, The Pool of Rain, and right behind Wario in The Grasslands. There, they immediately sprout strong vines up into the clouds, treetops, and cliffsides. Seeing literally nothin past the bridge, Wario heads back into the grasslands, and finds some Truck Wheels, which are a perfect fix for a broken carriage he saw at The Volcano's Base. But the treasures along the track don't lead anywhere neat, and are useless.
Instead, Wario find the Blue and Red Rings of Rivival. Wario wears both and instinctively touches them together. Suddenly, the amazing Tower of Revival rises up from the ground on the South side. Inside is...

And caught up, phew. I wasn't expecting to write that part of 'where is everybody', it just got blurted out.