Ade
;3
Quest Review: Lost Hell Pallasch
(Episode 1 - Retrieval)
Objective / Mission Bumper:
Client: Hopkins
“My weapon was taken from me when I was fighting in the Ruins. I want it back!”
Areas: Ruins 1, Ruins 2, Ruins 3, and Dark Falz
Reward: ??? Meseta (8,000 on Ultimate)
Author: Sega / Sonic Team
History / Tidbits: Lost Hell Pallasch (LHP) released on Official PSOBB on May 23, 2006. Prior to this, it seemed doubtful Sega would ever release a “Lost” quest for Ruins, as the “Lost” quest for Mines, Lost Soul Blade, released several years prior, and no other “Lost” quests had been made since. It coincidentally came out on Sega PSOBB just a few short weeks after Aleron Ives released his take on the “Lost” Ruins format, Lost Havoc Vulcan, on the Schthack server; which was received with great fanfare at the time. LHP definitely had big shoes to fill.
Enemy Counts:
Source: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/Lost_HELL_PALLASCH
Gimmick / Theme: Along with retrieving Hopkins’ lost weapon, the main gimmick / theme used in LHP is the party being split up into two groups of two. To my knowledge, the routes never intersect naturally until the second half of Ruins 3.
Ruins 1: Player 1 (Red Gem) is with Player 2 (Green Gem); Player 3 (Yellow Gem) is with Player 4 (Blue Gem)
Ruins 2: P1 is with P3; P2 is with P4
Ruins 3: P1 is with P4; P2 is with P3
The party rejoins about halfway through Ruins 3 until the end.
I did several runs of solo and split, but the majority of the runs were just “everyone join with Player 3,” as P3 apparently has the most Gran Sorcerers on their route. (I did not personally confirm this but believed what I was told.) Sadly, the main gimmick of the quest can be easily sidestepped by using Ryuker or Telepipes, which makes it meaningless and hurts the overall experience.
The runs where we committed to staying split were fun, and had a bit of a “racing” element to them, but any lead you build on your first segment hurts you just as much as it helps you; since your helper in Ruins 1 is now your opponent in Ruins 2, etc. This is yet another reason the quest gimmick is tepid and uninspired. I expected better from Sega so late in Official PSOBB’s lifespan.
Section Score: 10 out of 20 possible points.
Mob Density / Placement / Pacing: Unfortunately, the quest gimmick doesn’t do the monster density and pacing any favors. Although most spawns are well-placed and in a manner that is expected given Sega’s USUAL attention to quality craftsmanship, the entire quest just feels “blah” because the action never picks up. There’s only a handful of spawns where you get to really feel like you’re kicking ass. It feels especially empty if you don’t go OUT OF YOUR WAY to split the Bulclaws.
Even when adhering to the split gimmick, the mob density is still pretty tame for a well-geared two-person party. Also, some of the choices Sega made are odd. For example, I can’t recall another quest where a standalone Death Gunner spawns without any Dark Gunners, but LHP does this more than once.
When the party rejoins in Ruins 3, the spawn counts don’t really vamp up like one would expect, and stay pretty weak throughout. Save for the final wave of Ruins 3, which would be a “medium” challenge wave in denser quests, it never really picks up.
(A couple of typical LHP filler spawns. Not the worst, but nothing to write home about.)
Section Score: 15 out of 30 possible points.
Challenge / Fairness: Aside from one blatantly cheap two-Belra, two-Arlan, narrow hallway spawn that causes anyone after the first person entering the room to get pelted with basically unavoidable Belra shots, there aren’t any outright cheap spawns. I did not reduce any points for one poor spawn. Most spawns are extremely fair.
Also, LHP has sufficient healing rings on most routes and the ability to return to Pioneer 2 to resupply / fill traps, which helps the fairness.
However, LHP still loses major points on this section for having pointless switches. Meaning: Switches that have zero enemies, traps, or boxes en route. The quest does this multiple times, with a particularly egregious example near the end of Ruins 2 that sends the player two rooms out of the way to press a button for opening a laser fence THREE rooms away- with NOTHING to fill the space. Not even a single box. I will always reduce a quest’s score for things that are intended to simply waste the player’s time. This is objectively bad design.
(Arguably the most pointless switch in the entire game.)
The quest also has a severe glitch that, if you’re using a Telepipe / Ryuker as someone else is interacting with the computer terminal in Ruins 3, which is used to verify if the entire party is present before opening the next door, you will be UNABLE TO MOVE and therefore cannot finish the quest. Additional points were lost for this shoddy design on Sega’s part. Watching your party leader get screwed out of six Hunter’s Boost Road points, while selflessly staying in-game to keep the Section ID intact, is painful. A severe deduction to the score was assessed due to this glitch. It's inexcusable.
(The dreaded glitchy Computer Terminal.)
Section Score: 7 out of 30 possible points.
Reward for Effort: LHP has a few extremely good hunts thanks to a generous helping of Gran Sorcerers, Bulclaws, Delsabers, and Arlans. Splitting the Bulclaws can be very rewarding for hunting high-percentage, non-rare weapons, for example. (Not to mention the healthy chunk of standalone Claws.) Having a Dark Falz fight at the end is a nice cherry on top for Red Ring hunts. However, the quest is very stingy with boxes, which are a staple of Ruins hunts. With only 11 total boxes in the quest, there’s little reward for going out of your way. Also, I found it appalling the final room of Ruins 3 didn’t have those nice “guaranteed weapon” box drops on the side rooms before Falz.
(Claw splitting, weapon hunting goodness.)
Another issue is there are no boxes after defeating Dark Falz, which was likely because the original version of the quest teleported you out of the Falz arena a very short time after winning. Thanks to fixes from Ender, you can stay in Falz arena or even return to previously explored areas of Ruins after finishing the quest. However, the quest’s original design did not allow for Falz boxes, which is a slap in the face toward the player’s effort. There was no reason for the quest to be designed with the immediate warp-out in the first place, so even though the lack of Falz boxes is a RESULT of that choice (rather than the choice itself), it still loses points.
(This is literally over half the boxes in the entire quest.)
Section Score: 15 out of 20 possible points.
Overall: I chose LHP to review because I have always hated it and wanted to challenge myself to look at it objectively for once. During this Hunter’s Boost Road, I decided to do at least ten runs to give it a fair shake. In my mind, it was always a 0/10 quest, but now I see it has some redeemable qualities. Still, my heart sinks whenever I see it included in HBR because it lacks the pacing, challenge, and reward that is expected by most veteran players. Furthermore, the battle-hardened players of Official PSOBB, who put up with years of cheating / hacking and were thirsty for new content by 2006, deserved something better than this.
Overall Score: 47 out of 100 possible points.
4.7 / 10
Explanation of review / why am I doing this: Every month, I want to review one quest from HBR. I really enjoy being creative. I used to like drawing and writing, but my current profession does not provide a lot of creative outlet. I hope these reviews are enjoyable and create discussion. Rest assured, I can’t think of a single homemade quest that would score anywhere near this low (except maybe Dark Research 2.0, which itself still has several redeemable qualities), as our Quality Assurance Team on Ephinea does a good job of ensuring homemade quests are mostly equal or above Sega’s highest quality quests. (So nobody needs to freak out!)
I plan to definitely do one next month, but I will hold off during the Summer Anniversary event because:
Please let me know if you see any typos / wrong info. I’ve been out of college for 14 years and my writing / proofreading skills aren’t nearly what they used to be. I hope this exercise helps that a bit.
Thanks for reading!
(Even an average quest is amazing if you have good friends with you!)
(Episode 1 - Retrieval)
Objective / Mission Bumper:
Client: Hopkins
“My weapon was taken from me when I was fighting in the Ruins. I want it back!”
Areas: Ruins 1, Ruins 2, Ruins 3, and Dark Falz
Reward: ??? Meseta (8,000 on Ultimate)
Author: Sega / Sonic Team
History / Tidbits: Lost Hell Pallasch (LHP) released on Official PSOBB on May 23, 2006. Prior to this, it seemed doubtful Sega would ever release a “Lost” quest for Ruins, as the “Lost” quest for Mines, Lost Soul Blade, released several years prior, and no other “Lost” quests had been made since. It coincidentally came out on Sega PSOBB just a few short weeks after Aleron Ives released his take on the “Lost” Ruins format, Lost Havoc Vulcan, on the Schthack server; which was received with great fanfare at the time. LHP definitely had big shoes to fill.
Enemy Counts:
Source: https://wiki.pioneer2.net/w/Lost_HELL_PALLASCH
Gimmick / Theme: Along with retrieving Hopkins’ lost weapon, the main gimmick / theme used in LHP is the party being split up into two groups of two. To my knowledge, the routes never intersect naturally until the second half of Ruins 3.
Ruins 1: Player 1 (Red Gem) is with Player 2 (Green Gem); Player 3 (Yellow Gem) is with Player 4 (Blue Gem)
Ruins 2: P1 is with P3; P2 is with P4
Ruins 3: P1 is with P4; P2 is with P3
The party rejoins about halfway through Ruins 3 until the end.
I did several runs of solo and split, but the majority of the runs were just “everyone join with Player 3,” as P3 apparently has the most Gran Sorcerers on their route. (I did not personally confirm this but believed what I was told.) Sadly, the main gimmick of the quest can be easily sidestepped by using Ryuker or Telepipes, which makes it meaningless and hurts the overall experience.
The runs where we committed to staying split were fun, and had a bit of a “racing” element to them, but any lead you build on your first segment hurts you just as much as it helps you; since your helper in Ruins 1 is now your opponent in Ruins 2, etc. This is yet another reason the quest gimmick is tepid and uninspired. I expected better from Sega so late in Official PSOBB’s lifespan.
Section Score: 10 out of 20 possible points.
Mob Density / Placement / Pacing: Unfortunately, the quest gimmick doesn’t do the monster density and pacing any favors. Although most spawns are well-placed and in a manner that is expected given Sega’s USUAL attention to quality craftsmanship, the entire quest just feels “blah” because the action never picks up. There’s only a handful of spawns where you get to really feel like you’re kicking ass. It feels especially empty if you don’t go OUT OF YOUR WAY to split the Bulclaws.
Even when adhering to the split gimmick, the mob density is still pretty tame for a well-geared two-person party. Also, some of the choices Sega made are odd. For example, I can’t recall another quest where a standalone Death Gunner spawns without any Dark Gunners, but LHP does this more than once.
When the party rejoins in Ruins 3, the spawn counts don’t really vamp up like one would expect, and stay pretty weak throughout. Save for the final wave of Ruins 3, which would be a “medium” challenge wave in denser quests, it never really picks up.
(A couple of typical LHP filler spawns. Not the worst, but nothing to write home about.)
Section Score: 15 out of 30 possible points.
Challenge / Fairness: Aside from one blatantly cheap two-Belra, two-Arlan, narrow hallway spawn that causes anyone after the first person entering the room to get pelted with basically unavoidable Belra shots, there aren’t any outright cheap spawns. I did not reduce any points for one poor spawn. Most spawns are extremely fair.
Also, LHP has sufficient healing rings on most routes and the ability to return to Pioneer 2 to resupply / fill traps, which helps the fairness.
However, LHP still loses major points on this section for having pointless switches. Meaning: Switches that have zero enemies, traps, or boxes en route. The quest does this multiple times, with a particularly egregious example near the end of Ruins 2 that sends the player two rooms out of the way to press a button for opening a laser fence THREE rooms away- with NOTHING to fill the space. Not even a single box. I will always reduce a quest’s score for things that are intended to simply waste the player’s time. This is objectively bad design.
(Arguably the most pointless switch in the entire game.)
The quest also has a severe glitch that, if you’re using a Telepipe / Ryuker as someone else is interacting with the computer terminal in Ruins 3, which is used to verify if the entire party is present before opening the next door, you will be UNABLE TO MOVE and therefore cannot finish the quest. Additional points were lost for this shoddy design on Sega’s part. Watching your party leader get screwed out of six Hunter’s Boost Road points, while selflessly staying in-game to keep the Section ID intact, is painful. A severe deduction to the score was assessed due to this glitch. It's inexcusable.
(The dreaded glitchy Computer Terminal.)
Section Score: 7 out of 30 possible points.
Reward for Effort: LHP has a few extremely good hunts thanks to a generous helping of Gran Sorcerers, Bulclaws, Delsabers, and Arlans. Splitting the Bulclaws can be very rewarding for hunting high-percentage, non-rare weapons, for example. (Not to mention the healthy chunk of standalone Claws.) Having a Dark Falz fight at the end is a nice cherry on top for Red Ring hunts. However, the quest is very stingy with boxes, which are a staple of Ruins hunts. With only 11 total boxes in the quest, there’s little reward for going out of your way. Also, I found it appalling the final room of Ruins 3 didn’t have those nice “guaranteed weapon” box drops on the side rooms before Falz.
(Claw splitting, weapon hunting goodness.)
Another issue is there are no boxes after defeating Dark Falz, which was likely because the original version of the quest teleported you out of the Falz arena a very short time after winning. Thanks to fixes from Ender, you can stay in Falz arena or even return to previously explored areas of Ruins after finishing the quest. However, the quest’s original design did not allow for Falz boxes, which is a slap in the face toward the player’s effort. There was no reason for the quest to be designed with the immediate warp-out in the first place, so even though the lack of Falz boxes is a RESULT of that choice (rather than the choice itself), it still loses points.
(This is literally over half the boxes in the entire quest.)
Section Score: 15 out of 20 possible points.
Overall: I chose LHP to review because I have always hated it and wanted to challenge myself to look at it objectively for once. During this Hunter’s Boost Road, I decided to do at least ten runs to give it a fair shake. In my mind, it was always a 0/10 quest, but now I see it has some redeemable qualities. Still, my heart sinks whenever I see it included in HBR because it lacks the pacing, challenge, and reward that is expected by most veteran players. Furthermore, the battle-hardened players of Official PSOBB, who put up with years of cheating / hacking and were thirsty for new content by 2006, deserved something better than this.
Overall Score: 47 out of 100 possible points.
4.7 / 10
Explanation of review / why am I doing this: Every month, I want to review one quest from HBR. I really enjoy being creative. I used to like drawing and writing, but my current profession does not provide a lot of creative outlet. I hope these reviews are enjoyable and create discussion. Rest assured, I can’t think of a single homemade quest that would score anywhere near this low (except maybe Dark Research 2.0, which itself still has several redeemable qualities), as our Quality Assurance Team on Ephinea does a good job of ensuring homemade quests are mostly equal or above Sega’s highest quality quests. (So nobody needs to freak out!)
I plan to definitely do one next month, but I will hold off during the Summer Anniversary event because:
- Most players already know the area-specific Maximum Attack: E quests inside-out and backwards, and…
- I don’t want to miss out on any Anniversary Event hunt time!
Please let me know if you see any typos / wrong info. I’ve been out of college for 14 years and my writing / proofreading skills aren’t nearly what they used to be. I hope this exercise helps that a bit.
Thanks for reading!
(Even an average quest is amazing if you have good friends with you!)
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