tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post6292792979868545798..comments2024-03-04T09:12:37.072+00:00Comments on MALthus Dire's Fighting Fantasy Page: #20: Sword Of The SamuraiMALthus Direhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15847555508305181801noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-18913895965022860982023-01-15T03:05:47.214+00:002023-01-15T03:05:47.214+00:00Some have downed this on their blog. I don't ...Some have downed this on their blog. I don't get it. The amazing replayability of this book is reason enough to get it, and the journey before you get to the Hub intriguing enough once you get there. The battle in the Hub is quite exciting as well. Playing a Samurai is a theme that has been rarely done (AD & D Gamebooks' "Secrets of the Ninja" is the only other one that comes to mind), and although the Fighting Fantasy series is quite extensive, it lacks more description of the fascinating land of Hachiman.Bosk of Port Karhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05382836168231297724noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-31186189924169391872022-04-16T00:16:52.512+01:002022-04-16T00:16:52.512+01:00Great review and reminds of so much about this boo...Great review and reminds of so much about this book. Certainly another one of my favourites I came back to time and again. The art was amazing, the rokuro-kubi stayed with me for a long time, as did the characters from the hub.<br /><br />The characters are all taken from centuries-old Japanese folklore. The Ki-Rin, Kappa, and Rokurokubi can all be found on the internet now. <br /><br />However, in the pre-internet days when this was written I think the source material outside of Japanese culture would have come from books like Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn (which has a great Rokurokubi story and lots of "Oni" tales), whose writing introduced the Western world to these ancient stories and rich characters. Indeed many of the characters, and especially the dream-like world of the Hub, capture the atmosphere of the stories in Kwaidan very well. <br /><br />The switch to the weird dimension of the Hub seems less unusual to me now having read Kwaidan, as many of those stories from folklore transport characters suddenly into surreal dimensions where whole lifetimes are lived outside of human time and space. This shows that even this aspect of SOS's plot is well within context and I can only assume the authors researched very thoroughly or were inspired by numerous sources.<br /><br />Such a great book for firing the imagination and all the more playable for it. Thanks for this review.Andy Nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17609963927512138745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-77038117190439685582020-01-23T13:57:09.675+00:002020-01-23T13:57:09.675+00:00It's good in every way and FF could be expecte...It's good in every way and FF could be expected to be good. Feels ahead of it's time at #20 but that's the Mark Smith/Jamie Thomson/Dave Morris group for you.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05903993127360160864noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-57646594249194138532018-05-08T06:50:03.879+01:002018-05-08T06:50:03.879+01:00I just finished this book recently. Good fun and g...I just finished this book recently. Good fun and games home the importance of having feline friends.FourColorJavaJunkiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10465884058363059142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-7902369999342033972016-03-24T12:22:20.207+00:002016-03-24T12:22:20.207+00:00I was surprised that I actually completed this one...I was surprised that I actually completed this one (honestly!) during a train journey. I don't quite agree fully on the ease of the book. I almost always lost at the tourney portion because I picked the wrong allies or didn't have them, so maybe that's why I always associate this adventure as being one of the harder ones.<br /><br />I do agree that it is one of the best.granitoonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07106346192751165711noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-17990198036882512932015-10-19T20:55:06.984+01:002015-10-19T20:55:06.984+01:00My mentioning where I originally encountered the r...My mentioning where I originally encountered the riddle may have misled you. It's not some obscure bit of Middle Earth trivia - the riddle was already over a century old when Tolkien decided to include it in his book. And the age of the riddle shouldn't increase its difficulty, as the item to which it refers is still commonplace today.Ed Jolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07293815550517824166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-48934276365544430212015-10-19T19:30:12.459+01:002015-10-19T19:30:12.459+01:00I'm not sure that FF rules mention anywhere th...I'm not sure that FF rules mention anywhere the need for prior knowledge of The Hobbit, so I stand by my theory that the riddles are stupidly hardMALthus Direhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15847555508305181801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-87335064766535457772015-10-18T15:31:55.372+01:002015-10-18T15:31:55.372+01:00a tough riddle-solving moment with a Tatsu (wingle...<i>a tough riddle-solving moment with a Tatsu (wingless dragon) that I defy anyone to fathom out</i><br />I actually solved both riddles on my first attempt at the book. Well, the first I already knew from <b>The Hobbit</b>, but I figured out the second on my own. Though I did mess up the 'convert letters to numbers' bit by giving 'i' a value of 1 rather than 9, so I still wound up having to fight the Tatsu on that occasion.<br /><br />There's another FF blog (can't remember which one off hand) in which the writer got the first riddle wrong, but chose an answer that coincidentally had the same numerical value as the correct answer to the second riddle, and didn't realise his error until I pointed it out. It's a funny old world.Ed Jolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07293815550517824166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-62598943979384854042015-09-28T12:04:41.214+01:002015-09-28T12:04:41.214+01:00reminded me of the chamber of night from crown of ...reminded me of the chamber of night from crown of kings, first played back in those heady days of the 1980's and many times since.....I can only assume that nehemina was fleet of foot but alas not fleet enough to avoid those spikes....if I manage to finish venom of vortan , i'll have a go at your other adventures.<br />edhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13633073283427830809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-50917445833629046022015-09-26T20:22:29.285+01:002015-09-26T20:22:29.285+01:00Venom of Vortan is the toughest one I've writt...Venom of Vortan is the toughest one I've written yet. The coloured squares room is one of many tricky parts of it!MALthus Direhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15847555508305181801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3640929554503965005.post-84565386271936616712015-09-26T12:19:05.230+01:002015-09-26T12:19:05.230+01:00another excellent review , I must re-visit the la...another excellent review , I must re-visit the land of hachiman.<br /><br />Malthus, I finally played venom of vortan and its quite tough. I'd only gotten used to the company of nehemina fleetfoot when she got killed off. And then not much later I was incinerated while trying to walk on the coloured squares - aargh ..better luck next time I hope !<br /><br />edhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13633073283427830809noreply@blogger.com