Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon

LM2 is in the bag, literally. I want to beat Pokémon Ruby before I boot it up, though - I'm grinding for the Elite Four as we speak...

Xelviar wrote:

gems are transferrable across missions and as an added bonus, replaying missions will allow you to stack treasures, meaning upgrades!

I'm not grinding for treasure. I have just reached that part of the game where you need to go back through the first three missions to find Boos - not looking forward to that...

Balladeer wrote:

Xelviar wrote:

gems are transferrable across missions and as an added bonus, replaying missions will allow you to stack treasures, meaning upgrades!

I'm not grinding for treasure. I have just reached that part of the game where you need to go back through the first three missions to find Boos - not looking forward to that...

I was wondering that myself, but if it means defeating a Big Boo then I'll do it

I've (repeatedly) played the first two missions so far. I've mostly enjoyed the way the house bounces Luigi from point A to point B, most notable in the second mission.

It's probably just me, but I've found the controls a bit fiddly in places. Having 'B' as the run button but also as the 'aim nozzle down' button has caused a bit of confusion when I've been cornered, and the hoover button is a bit awkward mapped to 'R' when compared to its comfortable GameCube equivalent. It misses the second analogue stick, but I'm sure it's nothing I won't get used to.

Besides being cut off from exploring prematurely (and subsequently having to traipse through old rooms when restarting a new mission) I don't mind the mission structure so much. Having Luigi interact directly with the Prof. is no bad thing. Having the game as a high score challenge is also good, but skipping dialogue repeatedly on subsequent replays (and having to sit through lengthy animations again) is pretty jarring.

Does anyone know what that first dot denotes on the mission selection screen? The second one gives you your best rank. I'm guessing it puts an icon there once you've found all gems in that mission?

That is revealed following the fourth mission.

I see. I was also wondering what the best possible rank is? Replays of each stage has netted me no better than two stars for my efforts, though I suspect that top marks is three stars.

A replay of stage 1 for other-dot-related reasons garnered three stars, along with some Luigi celebrations and orchestral flourishes. I really hope there's nothing to gain from getting three stars on all levels - not only is it hard, replaying missions is tedious enough as is.

The original had quite fiddly controls, I felt, whereas this seems a bit smoother to me - so far, of course! Enjoying things so far, though I did get that sound loss that Jaster and Balla experienced. No more of that, please!

Stu_the_great wrote:

I've mostly enjoyed the way the house bounces Luigi from point A to point B, most notable in the second mission.

It's probably just me, but I've found the controls a bit fiddly in places. Having 'B' as the run button but also as the 'aim nozzle down' button has caused a bit of confusion when I've been cornered, and the hoover button is a bit awkward mapped to 'R' when compared to its comfortable GameCube equivalent. It misses the second analogue stick, but I'm sure it's nothing I won't get used to.

I agree, the mechanics of getting from room to room are very clever, especially:

Spoiler:

I have also found the controls to be rather cumbersome, particularly when you're battling more than one ghost at a time and the other one goes at you. Not being able to about-turn when you're strobe-lighting or vacuuming is a bit of a pain, but that's probably a deliberate quirk.

I get worried that I've missed stuff too, and wish there was some kind of counter in or at the end of the mission to show you the total items available. Obviously the gems you need to collect in order so you'll know if you missed one of those, but there are things like doggy bones which I'm sure you'll need later on.

But so far, 3 missions in, I am thoroughly enjoying it. The graphics are brilliant, the ghosts have their own individual personalities and the puzzles are smart. I suppose the one good thing about replaying missions in an attempt to achieve the coveted 3 star rating is that you accumulate masses of treasure and could potentially upgrade at an earlier juncture in the game than intended?

I haven't looked into the gems yet. Is it one gem per mission? Looking at it like that would make the game seem much shorter...

If that's the case, I've missed the second gem. I kept meaning to pick my 3DS up all day yesterday, but somehow it never happened. And the only clue I can gain about the golden bones so far is that they'll be related to Polterpup, who I've currently only met in a cinematic.

I think I had better stop playing Lego city and get into this some what more so I know what you people are talking about.

I've done the first mission twice and that's as far as I got

Stu_the_great wrote:

I haven't looked into the gems yet. Is it one gem per mission?

So far it looks like there's *at least* one gem per mission. But there are some of them which I couldn't find without the Internet / help from boy who had looked on the Internet.

Played this a few nights ago, got to the second mission and got stuck in a room. There was a door but it wouldn't get me out. I genuinely think I broke the game - I tired everything in that small room for about ten minutes. It's sort of sapped my enthusiasm for the game, to be honest. I'll go back though.

I have become awful with Internet guides on this game. First gem in Mansion 2 - couldn't find it, so after 15m or so I gave up. I blame the game timing you: it makes me feel under pressure to finish quickly, rather than giving me time to explore.

just picked it up hope its as good as everyone is saying

Balladeer wrote:

I have become awful with Internet guides on this game. First gem in Mansion 2 - couldn't find it, so after 15m or so I gave up. I blame the game timing you: it makes me feel under pressure to finish quickly, rather than giving me time to explore.

I've undertaken a policy of 'take it steady the first time, do the time trial some other time.' But then, I'll happily replay levels numerous times in a game I'm truly enjoying.

So far, I've only found the game's first gem (but I'm still no further than the second mission ).

Okay, am I the only one seeing an Orwellian twist to the story? The Dark Moon seems like some sort of morally dubious mind control, if you ask me.

On an only vaguely related note, the first world boss is great.

Spoiler:

With the Dark Moon shattered, I took its original presence to mean that E. Gadd was using the ghosts as slave labour. Am I reading into this way too much? Yes.

I've just finished the first boss, too. When I first saw it, I rolled my eyes, but then it threw a series of inventive puzzles at me, and all was forgiven. Also: due to extreme carelessness, I managed to die during the battle. Thus, Luigi has provided us with a first-boss battle far superior to any of Mario's 3DS first-boss efforts.

I think I'm into this, now. The puzzles can be surprisingly puzzling when they want to be, and the art style has a lot of charm. Luigi's lightning-quick switches between celebration and terror are also great fun to watch.

I'm taking it slowly the first time around, (It took me 19 min to do the second mission) and once I know what I'm doing and that I'll replay the missions and go for a better rank.

Also took a bit of damage in that mission thanks to the Red and one Blue ghost/s

shanks wrote:

Also took a bit of damage in that mission thanks to the Red and one Blue ghost/s

Having beaten the first mansion, I've currently only finished one stage with no damage taken. I'm sure it'll be easier on future runs, as you'll know what ghosts to expect and where.

shanks wrote:

Also took a bit of damage in that mission thanks to the Red and one Blue ghost/s

The blue ones are an utter pain but it was because I was being thick and didn't work out how they operated until I'd done the same mission about 3 times. Derp.

The red ones are the laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaads who go on stag do's and tear up an otherwise civilised city in Eastern Europe. AAAAAAAOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUURGH!

Those lads look old enough to know better. Good grief!

Especially the one in the turquoise T-shirt!

Second world boss spoilers:

Spoiler:

Right so I'm trying to get three stars in all the missions, just for the sake of my pride as we still don't know if they matter later on in the game, and Oh Lord Jesus it's so haaaaaaard! I did one mission where I only took 10 damage, took the correct route and got all the treasure, but still only got two stars! I did have to do a couple of detours to get the treasure, so I clearly got penalised for taking the time to do so. How does one achieve the perfect equilibrium between speed running and treasure hunting???