Don't Stop Bereaving Trivia Quiz

Answer: Samus ('Super Metroid')

Samus was a female protagonist, and "Super Metroid" (SNES) was set in outer space. Her starting weapon was an energy gun, which was improved as the game progressed, although she also had bombs and missiles to work with as well. All were good for killing the hostile creatures on Planet Zebes, the main location of the game, but the Super Missile was my general preference for heavy duty damage.

Link was a more archetypal hero than Samus - he was a stoic, silent protagonist who was different to the rest of the people he initially lived with. In "Ocarina of Time", originally released for Super Nintendo 64, he wielded swords as an adult, and he ended up landing the finishing blow on the final boss with his trusty Master sword (as if the sword needed more endorsement!).

Cloud (Final Fantasy VII, PSX) was best known for his Buster Sword, which was a very chunky sword with a trapezoid-shaped blade. Despite its impressive and iconic appearance, and that the weapon made appearances in numerous cutscenes, it was replaced fairly early in the game since it was actually quite weak. The moral of this story: looks aren't everything.

Finally, Justin was more of an adventurer than a hero, although he ended up becoming the hero of "Grandia" (PSX). His zest for the adventure was infectious, and he ascended from the lowly heights of wielding a wooden sword, to a much flashier and impressive Spirit Sword, which was his best weapon, and also helped to defeat the main antagonist of the game.

Answer: Rogue

"World of Warcraft" (2004-5, PC) was a popular multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Blizzard, where people played one of several roles, defeated beasts, learnt crafting abilities and explored the fictional world of Azeroth with friends.

Although a Rogue in World of Warcraft did not have to use daggers, the stealthier types would generally have preferred to, as they allowed backstabbing. And, whilst a Rogue could have fought toe-to-toe with Swords - the Combat specialisation would have allowed a Rogue to do this somewhat proficiently - they still couldn't take blows anywhere near as well as other melee classes like Warriors. And, why be a Rogue if you don't want to be stealthy, sly and sneaky?

Answer: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

'Splinter Cell' had Sam Fisher perform highly skilled, covert operations against government threats; namely Kombayn Nikoladze who murdered the president of Georgia and assumed the position for himself.
The key to this game was stealth - hiding in the shadows, hiding the bodies you killed, and shooting out the lights as you progressed were all ways Sam went undetected as he fulfilled his mission objectives.
In addition to his pistol and assault rifle, Sam also had tools, such as night vision goggles, which he used to open the way or help detect distant enemies.

Answer: Wild Arms

"Wild Arms" wove the wild west with technological themes as well as the supernatural and alien, making for an interesting tale. The three main characters; Rudy, Cecilia and Jack, came from very different backgrounds, however, cooperated initially for the sake of obtaining a golem to exhibit at a town fair. However, after a demon invasion, they cooperated together to defeat the encroaching threat...

Alhazad was one of the 'Quarter Knights' - four demons who worked together in their assimilation of the planet - and was a cold, impassive and strategic character, who reveled in his experiments.
One example of his intelligent strategy is shown when, in order to destroy one of the statues that seals the demon 'Mother', he bypassed the Saint Centour monster barrier by spreading a virus which turned the townspeople into monsters, leaving the town defenceless.

Alhazad also set several traps for the party, and preferred to avoid direct combat, although he was by no means weak. He was also responsible for transforming Elmina, who was main character Jack's love interest, into Lady Harken, another of the 'Quarter Knights'. Despite his aversion to combat, his appearance changed dramatically in the final fight against him in Ka Dingel, and he fought fiercely as you would expect from a demon.

Answer: Thanatos

Secret of Mana was one of the most popular SNES (originally) RPGs/adventure games. A vibrant, colourful visual style was coupled with a distinctive soundtrack, which was particularly strong in its percussive beats and straightforward, memorable melodies. In addition, the ring system made for simple and easy swapping of weapons and of the use of items and magic - which worked well as SoM used a small inventory relative to many other RPGs (some of these over-do the amounts of useable items, in my opinion).

Thanatos was best known for trying to cheat death and inject his soul into a more healthy body. To attain this goal, he captured Phanna and Dyluck, friends of the girl protagonist, and at the end of the game, tried transferring his soul into Dyluck's body - however, this failed. Previously in the game, he had also drained the life-force of Pandora and Northtown citizens before the party stopped him. Despite Thanatos's important position as the main antagonist, he rarely dealt with the protagonists of the game in person, preferring to let living walls and a vampire deal with them, and only battled them once in person.

Answer: Breath of Fire IV

"Breath of Fire IV" frontlined Ryu, a dragon-boy, who was the weaker half of the ancient Fou Emperor, Fou-lu, and for the dragon to be made whole, one of their consciousnesses had to die.
Much of the music and visual styles in this game are Japanese - this game was not westernised like many RPGs. A key feature of this RPG is that, although the rounds are turn-based, party members can combine skills and spells in order to accumulate effects, which can be highly beneficial. A mastery of team synergy is essential to defeating the game's beasts and bosses.

Fou-lu was playable for some sections of the game, and one saw that his view of humanity was quite low. However, the actions of Mami, a young, simple farmer girl who effectively gave her life to buy him some time, were kept in his mind and referenced in the final showdown between Ryu and Fou-lu, where Fou-lu tried to convince Ryu to join with him without combat, although Fou-lu did not like to admit he had these feelings.

Unfortunately, for helping Fou-lu, young Mami was sent to the Imperial base, Astana, and tortured for use in the Carronade, which was shot on the Soma forest, where Fou-lu was making the way to the Imperial Capital in order to reclaim the throne he believed to be rightfully his. Fou-lu could not believe what lengths humans would go to to stop him, and laughed sadistically. Despite the environmental, long lasting impact on the forest, Fou-lu was only slightly weakened by this attack - which gave perspective as to how powerful the game designers wanted the dragons to appear.

Answer: Sephiroth

"Final Fantasy VII" (PSX) is another game that combines technology and naturalistic themes; initially, the primary concern of the main character, Cloud, was to do his job and get paid without really worrying about why he was doing it. However, after meeting a young flower girl in the slums called Aeris and saving her from the Shinra Corporation, he and others become embroiled in a story which built up to the final battle against Sephiroth.

Sephiroth was shown in detail in a flashback, and was shown to be a cold, ruthless character, who didn't like to talk about his family. Upon reading details of the experiments conducted on him, Sephiroth went crazy and razed the town of Nibelheim.
Cloud, the main character of the game, had a bitter hatred for Sephiroth, not only since he experienced the destruction of his hometown firsthand, but because many loved ones were injured or killed by his sword, not least Tifa Lockhart, a playable character.
In the real version of the flashback, Cloud was shown throwing Sephiroth to the bottom of the Mako Reactor at Nibelheim, but he survived this and lay dormant in the Northern Crater, where he exerted his will from afar in order to summon the meteor that would cripple the planet, allowing him to control it and all life on it.

Note that Jenova was not really Cloud's mother (hence the inverted commas) but Sephiroth refers to 'her' as his mother in the Kalm flashback, since 'her' cells were injected into him as a foetus, which was what made Sephiroth different to 'normal people'. His real mother is Lucrecia Crescent, who was only encountered through second-hand sources within the game, as she died giving birth to him.

Answer: Chrono Trigger

"Chrono Trigger", originally released on the SNES system, was an RPG which focused mainly on time travel and of Lavos, a strange unknown creature who would eventually destroy the world - the main characters actually saw how this would come about firsthand. Initially, this ability to travel through time was not well controlled (otherwise the game would surely be over too quickly!).

In 2300 AD, ruins of a technologically advanced civilisation rested amongst sandstorms. Here, one of the ruins had records which showed when Lavos would destroy the world. Thus, the protagonists of 'Chrono Trigger' had to travel through time and become strong enough to take on Lavos, before it was too late.

Lavos was a parasite and aimed to drain the earth of its energy and send out spawn to other planets in space, furthering its life. Lavos's origin was unclear, but it took the appearance of a tortoise-like creature, with large, sharp spikes on it in place of a shell, and in place of a head, a 'beak' like structure which might also have acted as an eye. It had the ability to reproduce asexually, as Lavos spawn can be found on Death Mountain, but presumably required a large amount of energy to do so, since it lay dormant for around 65,000,000 years, storing energy.

Answer: Ultimecia ('Final Fantasy VIII')

"Final Fantasy VIII" (PSX) was set in a reasonably technologically endowed world, and the main aim of the game took quite a long time to unravel out; the main characters did not really understand their job - to kill Ultimecia - for a long time.

Ultimecia was only met in person at the very end of the game, and very little was known about her other than she detested SeeDs (the mercenary force that aim to kill her) and wanted to compress time to become the sole ruler of time (and thus a god). She also had a good sense of style, as her castle was decorated with a lot of art, and dressed herself, even when possessing others, as best as she could.

However, whilst she was not met in person until the endgame, she was met in proxy as she possessed Edea Kramer and put into motion plans that would have caused her to succeed at her goal of time compression. Her main objective using Edea was to find a young girl called Ellone, who had the ability to project people back into the past, but only in mind. Ultimecia needed Ellone's power in order to go back far enough to cast her time compression spell. In the end, this method was what was used against Ultimecia - and, with Ellone's help, the main group travelled across compressed time to Ultimecia's castle to finish her off.

Answer: Water Temple

"The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" was possibly the most well known Nintendo 64 title. This was not the first game which featured Link, however, and several characters such as Link, Zelda, the Zora, and the primary antagonist, Ganondorf, had appeared in "A Link to the Past", an earlier game in the 'Zelda' timeline. Despite this, the game was rarely criticised for its borrowed characters. The inventory menu was easily accessible, and, as Link played as both adult and child at different stages of the story, appealed to a variety of different ages. Dungeon-mongering, progressing the story and just chilling out with sidequests were all popular features of the game.

The Water Temple was said to be one of the most frustrating dungeons of the game by some (not me personally - I liked it...). This dungeon was an obstacle for adult Link and required the Iron Boots to get inside. Three water levels and several water-related tests awaited once inside, and, residing in an illusory - yet artistic room - consisting of a watery floor, a lone tree and some mist, was Dark Link, who was a black version of Link who retaliated to most of Link's weapon strikes; so Link was in some ways fighting himself in this battle.