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235: Return to Rathor Author: Carrie Ann Burton Release Date: September 26, 2006
"Oops, looks like I caused the hatred."
I guess you could call this a sequel to "Elves of Rathor," Carrie's first DMOD. It came in sixth place in the contest.
Hey, it's box art Dink! Haven't seen you in a while, box art Dink. How you been? Still got that weird expression on your face, I see.
There was a moment during the intro to this one where I thought it might be a more serious DMOD. The moment didn't last long. Of course it's another silly, short romp from Carrie.
A war with the elves is going poorly for the humans. A couple of wizards decide to send Dink back in time to try to prevent the hostilities from ever beginning. They don't give Dink any idea how to accomplish this, so I'm not sure how they think it's going to work.
Add a silly hat, replace the scythe blade with a mystical orb, and presto - wizards no longer have to be gnomes.
Dink doesn't like the elves, coming as he does from a time when humans are at war with them. He thinks they're jerks, and he's kind of right. Although the elves of the past don't hate or want to make war on the humans, when Dink asks them how they feel about his species, responses range from a patronizing "they're adorable" to "they're okay, I guess - good for pig farming and such." To be fair to them, they've apparently helped the humans out, providing them with "clothes, knowledge and even magic." I guess I'd put up with a bit of smugness in return for all of that. I mean, I'd still curse the elves, but like, behind their backs.
And obviously I'd make fun of their dorky haircuts.
You see the end coming, don't you? I sure did. Dink finds a "scroll of snow" that plunges the area into an icy cold, pissing the elves off and making them hostile towards humans forever. Dink isn't too broken up about having caused the war he came back in time to prevent. "I guess I blew it...heh." Oh, that rascally Dink, dooming his species.
The spell also summons a whole bunch of beavers. I mean, of course it does.
This is the first entry I've looked at to really get the theme right. Dink has a clear goal, and he fails spectacularly. He definitely couldn't have failed any harder.
"Return to Rathor" is a very simple DMOD (the only required combat is a fight against one ordinary bonca), but it's well done for what it is. There are some funny lines to be found. Bookshelves contain information on "the sexiness that is Tal" and naked pics of Joshriot ("Yikes!"). Dink asks one woman he meets, "Just having a stroll around the room?" which is the kind of thing that always makes me laugh. Those NPCs sure do like to pace. Good times. See, failure doesn't have to mean sad times and angst.
236: The Honor Quest Author: Ciprian Oprisa (Cypry) Release Date: September 26, 2006
"But the problem is that sometimes even heroes make mistakes"
This DMOD came in fifth place. I don't mean to spoil anything, but there is a subtle pattern behind the order in which I'm covering these.
This is a really interesting title screen. It does a nice job mixing Dink graphics into a different type of background.
In "The Honor Quest," you play as wizard Martridge. Dink fooled around on Libby (who is apparently his wife) and got some chick named Beth pregnant. Now, he wants Martridge to find a husband for Beth. Dink says something sweet about how Martridge is like the father he never had, but really he's just being lazy and selfish. I don't see why he doesn't solve his own damn problems. Plus, he doesn't really care about Beth - he's just trying to preserve his "honor" (aka prevent his wife from finding out). What a loser.
This is the first DMOD to use Dink 1.08's new feature to change the default "notalk" text. It only takes the original set of texts and changes them to Martridge's text color, but it still counts.
This DMOD is full of puzzles. They're quite interesting, but I was feeling lazy and dumb, so they were also kind of frustrating. It's also hard to figure out what you're supposed to do next in general. I made it through the first section, which is set in part of the map from the original game, on my own, but after that, I wouldn't have made it far without relying on a walkthrough.
It's an impressive feat of scripting, but I am wretched at sliding puzzles. This one is pretty fiendish, too.
In this cave, you have to push a rock in each room and you usually can't backtrack, so you have to work out a winding route to get where you want to go.
...Chess?
Martridge is a wizard, not a warrior, and that's reflected in this DMOD (unlike the first DMOD where you play as Martridge, where you had no magic at all). The only physical attack is a kick that has almost no range. Martridge's spells consume mana, which is displayed in a bar on the status bar (a rare case of adding an element to the status bar - it isn't easy to do!). Limited mana might be a good way to counter the general overpoweredness of magic in Dink Smallwood, but pairing it with an ineffective physical attack makes combat something that you mostly try to avoid, especially since mana can only be restored by expensive potions. Honestly, I was okay with this, since there isn't all that much required combat, but something like a small mana refill dropped by enemies might have been nice.
Somebody better call a necromancer. Eh? Eh?
Spells include the fireball, a healing spell, an ice ball that stuns enemies while doing damage ("created by an ancient named rabidwolf9") and a magic bomb that only activates when an enemy approaches it. I really like that last one, because it takes the normally-pretty-useless bomb and turns it into a powerful magic. The "explode on contact" effect makes all the difference. There are more spells, but I didn't get to them. Yeah, sorry, I didn't really finish this one either.
You can press the "I" key in this DMOD to see a description of your current magic. I'm not sure what those damage ratings are supposed to mean, though.
There are three endings, including one where Martridge is successful. Personally, I would have disallowed successful endings (it seems to ruin the point of the theme), but the rules said you could have one, so it's okay. Anyway, it's very difficult to reach that ending. You can easily end up doing something in the wrong order (there's no warning about this) and make it impossible to win, which is what happened to me. I realized that in order to continue, I'd have to reload a save from half an hour ago and redo a bunch of puzzles including that sliding puzzle, which takes a long time even if you have the solution in front of you. I gave up. The only ending I reached involved Martridge getting smooshed by a rock and Dink's reputation getting ruined by the vengeful Beth. Serves him right, I say.
You're wondering now... what to do... now you know this is the end.
"The Honor Quest" is in some ways quite an interesting DMOD, but in the end I was a bit too lazy to jump through its many hoops. Given the context, I'm going to call that "miserable failure" ending the real one anyway. You can't stop me.
"Oops, looks like I caused the hatred."
I guess you could call this a sequel to "Elves of Rathor," Carrie's first DMOD. It came in sixth place in the contest.
Hey, it's box art Dink! Haven't seen you in a while, box art Dink. How you been? Still got that weird expression on your face, I see.
There was a moment during the intro to this one where I thought it might be a more serious DMOD. The moment didn't last long. Of course it's another silly, short romp from Carrie.
A war with the elves is going poorly for the humans. A couple of wizards decide to send Dink back in time to try to prevent the hostilities from ever beginning. They don't give Dink any idea how to accomplish this, so I'm not sure how they think it's going to work.
Add a silly hat, replace the scythe blade with a mystical orb, and presto - wizards no longer have to be gnomes.
Dink doesn't like the elves, coming as he does from a time when humans are at war with them. He thinks they're jerks, and he's kind of right. Although the elves of the past don't hate or want to make war on the humans, when Dink asks them how they feel about his species, responses range from a patronizing "they're adorable" to "they're okay, I guess - good for pig farming and such." To be fair to them, they've apparently helped the humans out, providing them with "clothes, knowledge and even magic." I guess I'd put up with a bit of smugness in return for all of that. I mean, I'd still curse the elves, but like, behind their backs.
And obviously I'd make fun of their dorky haircuts.
You see the end coming, don't you? I sure did. Dink finds a "scroll of snow" that plunges the area into an icy cold, pissing the elves off and making them hostile towards humans forever. Dink isn't too broken up about having caused the war he came back in time to prevent. "I guess I blew it...heh." Oh, that rascally Dink, dooming his species.
The spell also summons a whole bunch of beavers. I mean, of course it does.
This is the first entry I've looked at to really get the theme right. Dink has a clear goal, and he fails spectacularly. He definitely couldn't have failed any harder.
"Return to Rathor" is a very simple DMOD (the only required combat is a fight against one ordinary bonca), but it's well done for what it is. There are some funny lines to be found. Bookshelves contain information on "the sexiness that is Tal" and naked pics of Joshriot ("Yikes!"). Dink asks one woman he meets, "Just having a stroll around the room?" which is the kind of thing that always makes me laugh. Those NPCs sure do like to pace. Good times. See, failure doesn't have to mean sad times and angst.
236: The Honor Quest Author: Ciprian Oprisa (Cypry) Release Date: September 26, 2006
"But the problem is that sometimes even heroes make mistakes"
This DMOD came in fifth place. I don't mean to spoil anything, but there is a subtle pattern behind the order in which I'm covering these.
This is a really interesting title screen. It does a nice job mixing Dink graphics into a different type of background.
In "The Honor Quest," you play as wizard Martridge. Dink fooled around on Libby (who is apparently his wife) and got some chick named Beth pregnant. Now, he wants Martridge to find a husband for Beth. Dink says something sweet about how Martridge is like the father he never had, but really he's just being lazy and selfish. I don't see why he doesn't solve his own damn problems. Plus, he doesn't really care about Beth - he's just trying to preserve his "honor" (aka prevent his wife from finding out). What a loser.
This is the first DMOD to use Dink 1.08's new feature to change the default "notalk" text. It only takes the original set of texts and changes them to Martridge's text color, but it still counts.
This DMOD is full of puzzles. They're quite interesting, but I was feeling lazy and dumb, so they were also kind of frustrating. It's also hard to figure out what you're supposed to do next in general. I made it through the first section, which is set in part of the map from the original game, on my own, but after that, I wouldn't have made it far without relying on a walkthrough.
It's an impressive feat of scripting, but I am wretched at sliding puzzles. This one is pretty fiendish, too.
In this cave, you have to push a rock in each room and you usually can't backtrack, so you have to work out a winding route to get where you want to go.
...Chess?
Martridge is a wizard, not a warrior, and that's reflected in this DMOD (unlike the first DMOD where you play as Martridge, where you had no magic at all). The only physical attack is a kick that has almost no range. Martridge's spells consume mana, which is displayed in a bar on the status bar (a rare case of adding an element to the status bar - it isn't easy to do!). Limited mana might be a good way to counter the general overpoweredness of magic in Dink Smallwood, but pairing it with an ineffective physical attack makes combat something that you mostly try to avoid, especially since mana can only be restored by expensive potions. Honestly, I was okay with this, since there isn't all that much required combat, but something like a small mana refill dropped by enemies might have been nice.
Somebody better call a necromancer. Eh? Eh?
Spells include the fireball, a healing spell, an ice ball that stuns enemies while doing damage ("created by an ancient named rabidwolf9") and a magic bomb that only activates when an enemy approaches it. I really like that last one, because it takes the normally-pretty-useless bomb and turns it into a powerful magic. The "explode on contact" effect makes all the difference. There are more spells, but I didn't get to them. Yeah, sorry, I didn't really finish this one either.
You can press the "I" key in this DMOD to see a description of your current magic. I'm not sure what those damage ratings are supposed to mean, though.
There are three endings, including one where Martridge is successful. Personally, I would have disallowed successful endings (it seems to ruin the point of the theme), but the rules said you could have one, so it's okay. Anyway, it's very difficult to reach that ending. You can easily end up doing something in the wrong order (there's no warning about this) and make it impossible to win, which is what happened to me. I realized that in order to continue, I'd have to reload a save from half an hour ago and redo a bunch of puzzles including that sliding puzzle, which takes a long time even if you have the solution in front of you. I gave up. The only ending I reached involved Martridge getting smooshed by a rock and Dink's reputation getting ruined by the vengeful Beth. Serves him right, I say.
You're wondering now... what to do... now you know this is the end.
"The Honor Quest" is in some ways quite an interesting DMOD, but in the end I was a bit too lazy to jump through its many hoops. Given the context, I'm going to call that "miserable failure" ending the real one anyway. You can't stop me.
