I think it is kind of silly that 3rd Edition mind flayers had the exact same suite of psionic powers across the board, with customization basically limited to slapping on spellcasting/manifester levels until you get something reasonable. This also better allows for someone to get it removed before the transformation is complete, paving the way for a compendium class or one possible origin for psionics. Since they can move, attach themselves, and are pretty good at hiding I think it will add a lot of tension when creeping into (or trying to escape from) a mind flayer enclave or vessel. I loved the idea of making them more parasitic, but also wanted to make them more dangerous on their own. Josh pitched this idea awhile back after reading Perdido Street Station, likening them to the handlingers. Once the victim is immobilized it is only a matter of suffering through an incredibly painful, lengthy transformation, and that is where baby mind flayers come from. Instead of having to be implanted in a victim they just latch on to your spine, digging through flesh and bone with their sharp limbs to get a nice, solid grip. Since they can crawl about this already makes them more dangerous, but they also possess an array of primitive psionic abilities that can induce panic in potential victims, hide them from sight, maybe even a one-target mind blast? Instead of starting out as defenseless tadpoles they look more like facehuggers: vertebrae-like tails and spidery limbs extend from a fleshy mass covered in eyes of various shapes and sizes. Mind flayers come from the Far Realm, a void beyond the known regions of the Astral Sea, where space, time, and reason have no meaning or appreciable purpose. But you also can’t help but shake the feeling that you’re playing a cut-down, inferior version.A LONG TIME AGO, IN A REALM FAR, FAR AWAY Stupid name aside, Crystal Beans is actually still a pretty decent game, since the core of Dungeon Explorer II is still intact. Maybe this was all done as a quickie cash-in due to the popularity Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 2? Multiplayer has been scaled back to three players too. Many of the special items from Dungeon Explorer II have been removed. There’s also a melee attack where your character twirls about. Many of the magic spells have changed, requiring that you use several potions at once in order to cast a screen clearing spell, a la Golden Axe. The action is pretty similar, with some tweaks. You need to walk around various towns and talk to people in order to unlock the next area. The continuous overworld is gone as well, replaced with a menu-based world map. The bosses are mostly all new, although there isn’t any dialogue before them like Dungeon Explorer II. Many of the dungeons are the same, although sometimes they’re out of order, or removed entirely. Most of the music consists of faithful renditions of the redbook music but done with the SNES sound chip, which actually sounds pretty decent, all things considering. The strange thing is, outside of a slightly brighter color palette, the rest of the graphics are almost exactly the same as the TG-16 version, and it’s easy to see how the styles clash. Some of the character classes have changed – they include Witch, Fighter, Warrior, Bow Master, Wizard, Priest, Monk and Kage (Ninja) – but all of the sprites have been redrawn to look more cartoony. The intro has completely changed, for starters, which consists mostly of a text scroll. Crystal Beans From Dungeon Explorer, is kind of a port of Dungeon Explorer II for the Super Famicom, but heavily reworked.
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