Posted January 08, 2021
As you are no doubt familiar, many video games use random numbers for things, and as a result, sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don't. Then there are times where you end up with rather strange luck, with rare events happening more frequently ore before more common ones.
Here are some cases of strange luck that I encountered:
* In The Alliance Alive, the male protagonist starts with 50 HP and his female companion with only 40. Guess who currently has more HP? (Hint: It wasn't the guy.)
* In SaGa Frontier, I decided I wanted MagicHeal (common absorb from Unicorn) on my monster. So, I fight the Unicorn, kill it, have my monster absorb it, and it learned LifeRain (rare absorb from Unicorn, and also very powerful as it's a multi-target heal in a game where such things are rare).
* I could also mention my first Dragon Quest 5 (SFC version) playthrough, where twice an enemy cast Chance (Hocus Pocus in modern translations) and the effect rolled was to paralyze all battle participants. However, in the first case it resulted in a party wipe (no wagon present), while in the second it resulted in 30k free XP for everyone (wagon present, so those inside were spared, the enemy that cast the spell was a Metal King Slime (tons of XP if you kill it before it runs away), and paralyzed characters (unlike dead ones) still earn XP).
Or, in Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, I tried to defeat that ghost ship early by paralyzing it (the developers didn't give this boss any status immunity for some reason). However, the boss killed everybody except Claudia before I could paralyze it, resulting in a rather hopeless situation. Claudia then attacked with her bow, and:
* Glimmer (new art learned, and it gets used immediately for free),
* Art glimmered was Shadow Shot (damages target with a chance of instant death),
* ... and the instant death effect worked!
So, what instances of strange luck have *you* encountered? (Roguelikes and randomizers are especially ripe for this sort of thing.)
Here are some cases of strange luck that I encountered:
* In The Alliance Alive, the male protagonist starts with 50 HP and his female companion with only 40. Guess who currently has more HP? (Hint: It wasn't the guy.)
* In SaGa Frontier, I decided I wanted MagicHeal (common absorb from Unicorn) on my monster. So, I fight the Unicorn, kill it, have my monster absorb it, and it learned LifeRain (rare absorb from Unicorn, and also very powerful as it's a multi-target heal in a game where such things are rare).
* I could also mention my first Dragon Quest 5 (SFC version) playthrough, where twice an enemy cast Chance (Hocus Pocus in modern translations) and the effect rolled was to paralyze all battle participants. However, in the first case it resulted in a party wipe (no wagon present), while in the second it resulted in 30k free XP for everyone (wagon present, so those inside were spared, the enemy that cast the spell was a Metal King Slime (tons of XP if you kill it before it runs away), and paralyzed characters (unlike dead ones) still earn XP).
Or, in Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song, I tried to defeat that ghost ship early by paralyzing it (the developers didn't give this boss any status immunity for some reason). However, the boss killed everybody except Claudia before I could paralyze it, resulting in a rather hopeless situation. Claudia then attacked with her bow, and:
* Glimmer (new art learned, and it gets used immediately for free),
* Art glimmered was Shadow Shot (damages target with a chance of instant death),
* ... and the instant death effect worked!
So, what instances of strange luck have *you* encountered? (Roguelikes and randomizers are especially ripe for this sort of thing.)