Wario Land 3 - With input from Samus

[Ditocoaf]

Just to clarify everything, waterfalls do act as 'wall' when in Vampire/Bat for. But falling down on top would end the status.

Are you sure? I have memories of avoiding landing on the waterfalls as a kid, then being shocked to accidentally discover you could just stand on top of them. Could be a false memory though.

[Paragraph]

I really hate The Colossal Hole. Super annoying level.

Otoh, I don't remember this part of the Wild River level. Or the entire level, for that matter. I think I only remember the annoying ones, haha.

[Ditocoaf]

I think Colossal Hole gave me Stockholm Syndrome. I remember spending ages learning how to get to each miniscule cave opening using the flat form or floating or rolling, but somehow those are fond memories, which in retrospect is nonsensical.

[J. J. W. Mezun]

043. N6 Sea Turtle Rocks - Gray

Sunny day ~
inside tortoise crust
jellyfish.


044. S5 Cave of Flames - Gray

Neon cave ~
where birds hibernate
for autumn.


045. S2 The Big Bridge - Blue

Clear waters ~
inside the gear room
bubbling joy.

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

2 o' these treasures have speedrun shortcuts through wallclipping glitches: you can skip the squid boss by doing a blind dash-jump wall clip @ the top & skip all that head-bonking in the blue-chest room in "The Big Bridge" by dashing into the water while standing on a certain pixel & swimming up into that alcove you're s'posed to duck fall into to glitch yourself into the hole from the bottom.

'Less you're trying to go fast, though, skipping the boss is probably a greater hassle than just beating it normally, since, as raocow shows, once you understand how it works it's trivial. 1 flaw o' this game is it doesn't quite understand how difficulty curves work with the bosses: so far the 1st & 3rd bosses were harder than any other boss we've encountered, & in obvious ways. You could tell just by thinking 'bout it that a boss with multiple projectiles you have to dodge who can only be hit by angling shots gainst a wall @ it would be harder than a boss wherein you have to swim into its head, & then swim into its butt 3 times each while avoiding it only during 1 o' those phases.

Though the puzzle involving head-bonking the blocks & from below so you can later duck jump into the alcoves 'bove them is clever, 'specially the way it takes advantage o' your status o' being able to break blocks from below & not 'bove, I feel this game o'eruses bubble puzzles quite a bit. But this 1 is a'least 1 o' the better 1s.

"Cave of Flames"'s gray treasure feels thrown together. The gray chest is just there on some obscure cliff, & then there's the weird puzzle throwing the enemy through the warp beam.

It's the only time it's e'er used. They don't develop it beyond this introductory puzzle @ all.

But I like the way Wario Land 3 just drops li'l surprises like that into levels.

I like how "Sea Turtle Rock" feels like a Wario Land II level with better music, with the way you have to break through the level.

[Nimono]

i really hate that wand of purification item. it NEVER tells you what it did, it just makes levels sparkle and you MAYBE notice what it did if you didn't just assume "oh why did i never check this!"

why couldn't it have had an extra scene where it showed the dark water getting purified into normal water? Could have shown a scene of some random square that doesn't link to a single level, with the water turning blue and revealing a door inside, showing that is what you seek out now

[Ashan]

Man that was infuriating watching the big giant flashing weak point that took up 1/3 of the boss's sprite with raocow just not even thinking to bop it

I barely even remember this boss but it's like the most weakpoint-ey weakpoint in any video game ever!!

[Piesonscreations]

It took me until today's video to realize how uh, straightforward the naming convention for this lp was.

[Matt is me]

Man that was infuriating watching the big giant flashing weak point that took up 1/3 of the boss's sprite with raocow just not even thinking to bop it

I barely even remember this boss but it's like the most weakpoint-ey weakpoint in any video game ever!!

I dunno...I am also someone who played this through as a kid (quite thoroughly--I remember playing the final boss over and over again just so I could hear the end theme), and even still, when I watched this video I was like "dude, I'm like 75% sure you gotta bop his bottom!". I didn't remember for sure, and there was a solid chance I was just wrong. As a blind player, I can easily see not being sure (until he fails to react 3-4 hits later, which raocow immediately noticed and corrected for once he got that far). I don't think he did anything wrong against this boss at all.

[Crow]

It took me until today's video to realize how uh, straightforward the naming convention for this lp was.

Wario Land 2's naming convention was literally just the level mission name (until about the fourth defeat the giant spear man at which point it changed to spear the spear spear spear)

[Sebby19]

Updated the chart. I don't like how I had to make the 2 treasures after the Air-pump lopsided like that, since that is breaking one of my made up rules for this chart. But if I switch the Air-Pump with the Treasure Magnifying Glass, that still wouldn't look very good becuase then there would be a uneven distance between the Staff of Purity and those other two treasure. And at this time I was still trying for the 'Appeared in level sparkle order, left to right' rule.

Not that this all matters, in the end.

[Awoo]

Still waiting patiently for the day, that glorious day, when, finally, after so much waiting, we'll finally have

Owl Control

[pholtos]

Still waiting patiently for the day, that glorious day, when, finally, after so much waiting, we'll finally have

Owl Control

Should be in 2-3 episodes.

[Sebby19]

Story Time! With Wario Land 3!

The chain of deals...
Hidden in the center of the jeweled rock is the 3rd Music Box! Only two more to go! It plays it its tune, just like the ones before it. Suddenly, on the South side, a small hole suddenly bursts out of the side of the volcano, as if it reacted to the mini-carousal. Inside the hot Cave of Flames, which tunnels deep into the core of the volcano. Near the open flames is the Staff of Purity. This magic wand purifies the black oily water around The Big Bridge, The Frigid Sea, and back in Sea Turtle Rocks, revealing doorways that Wario could not have possibly seen the outlines of before.
Behind the bridge is Lantern of Truth, but it's unlit. Next, Wario heads to...

Just to clarify, those Blue Birds only knockback Wario. It's those Red ones in The Grasslands that make Wario Dizzy.

[Veruchai]

After seeing multiple golf games now, I feel like a lot of them are just too strict with the stroke count.
You can't really make a mistake on the long ones because you need all your strokes to get to the end.
Then after paying a couple times you get a short one with 3 strokes extra left...
The variety is appreciated but just slighty misbalanced.

Also that zombie fall was super obviously happening.

[Aqualakitu]

If this game has one big flaw in hindsight it's that the level design is kind of bland? I love the Wario Land series, but I feel like when you look back at a lot of these areas then they end up feeling very basic, and it's not like the items you get allow you to really explore the level in a new way like a real Metroidvania would. They just shove some blocks out of the way most of the time.
And perhaps a few too many non-grey treasures end up being single rooms reached after retreading familiar ground with a minigame or status effect that doesn't evolve much as the game goes on. The later levels tend to be more inspired but if you look at stuff like the ice "puzzle" in today's episode it's not something you even really have to think about.
By far not trying to say the game is bad, there's still a lot to like but I feel like it doesn't hold up as well as I thought it would in that aspect.

[Grounder]

Wow, worst level discovered?

[J. J. W. Mezun]

046. N6 Sea Turtle Rock - Red

Fall evening ~
in the clear waters
cold shocking.


047. E2 The Frigid Sea - Green

Dark ice cave ~
the changing seasons
o' ice water.


048. E3 Castle of Illusions - Gray

Stormy night ~
on every step up
sleepwalking.

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

The donut puzzle in "Sea Turtle Rock" is Wario Land 3 showing off its patented style o' creating a clever gimmick & using it only once & ne'er developing it further, as well as its love for throwing the minigolf game in when it's not needed

. I think "Sea Turtle Rock"'s red treasure would've been better if they got rid o' the minigolf game & put the red key somewhere else in the level, maybe somewhere deep in the mazy waters.

"The Frigid Sea"'s ice-changing gimmick

is also a cool mechanic that is ne'er used 'gain, but probably wouldn't need to be, since there's not much to do with it beyond its 1st use, & specially since there's only 1 ice level

. If I would change 1 thing 'bout it, though, I would make the 2nd trip to the switch different, as making you do the same path twice is padding. Also, when writing the haiku for this treasure, I finally realized how odd it is that you make the water freeze & thaw with a switch; but then, maybe it's a thermostat that regulates the room temperature.

I love how "Castle of Illusions" spreads its chests & the way this game's key & chest gimmick makes it work.

I, too, would oft have trouble remembering the puzzle to get the gray chest in "Castle of Illusions", since breaking that rightmost, higher block feels weird. ¿Why would breaking a bigger block be easier than breaking smaller blocks? It's kind o' funny how the game makes the other 3 chests easier to get, as a nice li'l prank on the player, but also a way to balance the challenge, since those chests otherwise take longer to get to than the gray chest.

As for the zombies, I think raocow's problem is he seems to expect this game to be too easy, 'specially after Wario Land II, which is much easier. I've mentioned it before, but it seems strange to see him play much harder, cheaper Mario rom hacks, & then get frustrated when he has to redo the level 'cause he got hit. I know he said it's also the slowness o' recover, but I don't think that's the cause here, as it doesn't take that long to recover, & sometimes he would recover immediately. I think it's an expectation thing, since raocow mentioned how he gets frustrated by unexpected things — which is probably amplified by being on the spot as an LPer. I know I will sometimes get mo' frustrated when I lose to an easier game 'cause I'm not ready for it &, maybe deep down, 'cause o' a pride thing. I remember how bewildered I was once, after being able to beat the Donkey Kong Country games on their hard modes, repeatedly getting killed on a level in Yoshi's Story.

Then 'gain, maybe it's 'cause the zombies being able to appear out o' nowhere @ random makes them like bullet generators.

If raocow thinks the zombies are bad, I'll have fun seeing him try the blue treasure for this level. He won't be so keen on Owl Control after that.

[Crow]

oh yeah that last level looks like complete trash

[Paragraph]

oh yeah that last level looks like complete trash

it is

But it's not THE worst level in the game by a long shot!

[Crow]

this game must be pretty "meh" overall then
the colossal hole is also garbage so yeah

[Plutia]

colossal hole is at least a cool idea

[Sebby19]

Oh boy, we're almost there...

[Leet]

Every level so far has still been more interesting than most of Wario "Rooms with coins" Land 2

[Paragraph]

Every level so far has still been more interesting than most of Wario "Rooms with coins" Land 2

Listen buddy every single one of those coins triggers my skinner box something fierce while WL3 does NOTHING of the sort!!!


...I'm only half joking

[Sebby19]

Story time! With Wario Land 3!

The chain of deals...
...Next, Wario heads to the turtley rocks, and finds the Golden Snake Eye 1 (left). But wait, where is the right eye? This looks like the Blue Snake Eyes from not too long ago, so there must be another piece of this treasure set, somewhere. But where? He couldn't have missed it, could he?
Wario thinks it's in the water under the iceberg, but instead finds Flame of Truth. Taking what he can get, Wario puts the flame in the related lantern. The completed lantern reveals that the large rock on the dark East was in fact an illusion this whole time. After the façade is lifted, the appropriately named Castle of Illusions, comes into view. This spooky, magical place is overrun by zombies, and designed to test your patience. Did some ancient ruler once reside over the land from here?
After navigating the castle, Wario comes out wearing the Steel Overalls. This grants Wario a much stronger butt stomp (equivalent in strength to his dash now), only much stronger than he could have before. This new buttstomp creates a mini-earthquake, shaking enemies on the ground and knocking them over. This would have been useful against those pirates, last time!