~ Spells and two-handed combat. I don't recall anything different about spellcasting but didn't mind being able to wield two swords at once, especially once you get to the point where you can craft more Blue Steeles/Exsymyrs (however you spell it). Then you just dual-wield a couple of those (I think the second one hits twice per attack) and murderise everthing that can be meléed.
~ Mini-maps. I never really used most of them. Just the Porter Map to ship axes to the shop.
~ Respawning monsters in general. I don't remember this specifically being a problem except the Minions. Not everything respawns (there's a kind of boss guy in one of the cave areas who definitely doesn't) but maybe I just never really stuck around long enough in an area for it to be a problem.
~ Respawning Minions. Yep, they're annoying. In order to rest I use the Tech Shield to port back to the starting area and lock myself in the "home base" when I want to rest. You can hear the buggers flying about on the other side of the door but they can't get you as long as you remember to leave the key on the ground (or just keep hold of it) while you're in there.
~ Giggler with "blue rain". I vaguely remember a little green imp-looking guy in an area with a bunch of the blue forcefield things, who runs around and is annoying because I think he pushes buttons to make Fireballs shoot at you or something. I think you just have to be fast and react in time to twat him whenever you get a chance or something. I actually can't remember too much about him so I suppose I never had too much difficulty beating him?
~ Throwing waterskin into fountain to fill it. I don't remember that being a thing. Maybe you just click it on the fountain and then click again to get it back? I don't remember. I'm sure you don't have to throw it?
~ Rain and lightning. Yeah, when the rain comes down at "maximum intensity" you need to go indoors and wait it out. I was only ever struck by lightning once but it did insta-kill my party. So yeah, it's risky going out in a full-on storm which means some waiting around for no other real reason.
~ Respawning portals after you close them with Zo. Yeah, would be nice if they stayed shut permanently so you wouldn't have those annoying Minions coming after you all the time. They do stay shut longer, I seem to recall,if you use a stronger version of the spell (ie Mon versus Lo), but they still reopen eventually.
~ Annoying speed puzzles. I remember the bit with the battering rams being annoying. Keeping everyone in the grey is just something I do anyway since I like to be able to move at full speed instead of being frustratingly slowed down, so only had to worry about the timing on those kinds of puzzles and not my characters' physical speed. But yeah, speed/reaction-based puzzles are not my favourite.
~ Graphics are worse. Eh, they were certainly different, and did therefore give a different feel to the game, but I've never been one to judge a game by its graphics. If it's fun enough to play, I generally don't care.
~ Money/shops. I actually liked the sops, thought it was fun. Of course, once you figure out you can use a load of Fireballs and the Porter Minion map to get shitloads of axes and ship them over to the weapon shop to sell, money suddenly becomes no object and you can buy whatever you want, but still, the axe-farming was fun
.~ Your first character being forced and you only being able to choose the other three. Yeah, agree, I would've rather been able to choose my whole party and not been stuck with Torham.
~ Easy food and water. Yeah, with the Thorn Demons right by the starting base dropping basically "dragon steaks", food is never a problem and there's also a fountain in the home base for easy water...and the Tech shield (which I think you get pretty early on) to be able to just teleport back and restock. On the one hand, it means you're not running around constantly starving to death and can focus on the other puzzles and stuff, but on the other I suppose it removes some element of ongoing challenge from the game.
~ Music. I can't really remember most of it except the stuff in the first few areas. I like the track that plays in the starting area and have it in my music collection.
I will also add that yeah, I don't like a game pressuring me into doing stuff, which this one does with the constant influx of Minions past a certain point. Also when you're powering up the big machine at the end, even if there are still Rockies alive to keep fuelling the furnace there's a Guard Minion that keeps respawning in front of it so you need to go down there and kill it for them if the fire's gone out by the time you need it. And then the final boss fight is a bit of a pain and has more timed running to get across gaps without falling off (but if I remember rightly, falling off at least doesn't kill you but means you have to run back from wherever you landed).
When I played the game as a kid my dad was also playing and made more progress than me. So I knew about the Minions/stronger Minions that spawn and mostly spent my time (I was like, ten or eleven, I think - game came out in '95 if I remember rightly) arsing about farming the Axe Giants and stuff because I didn't want to get far enough that the "scary" stronger Minions would start spawning. I did eventually finish it, though, because I remember seeing the ending. When I replayed it years later and was much faster/better at it, Iw as a bit surprised at how short it ended up being.
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