Let's Play:

This is sort of a director's cut of the game. I wanted to have a video recording of the game. So I figured I'd try making a Let's Play. Never done anything like it before, and the only Let's Play I've ever watched was of my previous quest, The Nine Villages, by MeleeWizard. But I tried. And I quickly realized that I don't talk enough for this type of thing. I've made a few training videos for work, but nobody wants to hear an exact play by play: "i went east to the next room, let me walk up to this guy and kill him, and now I'm going to kill that next guy over there," boring and repetitive. So I started talking about the quest.

At first, I was kind of just winging it with the explanation. I wrote an introduction sentence for each video, just so I could avoid saying the same intro each time, and I had a list of songs I would need to identify in the video. Maybe a quarter of the way through, I started making a bullet list of things to discuss. Not a script, but topics or points I thought should be part of the same explanation. Around then I got more used to talking constantly, so the first quarter of the Let's Play is pretty rough. I also did very little audio cleanup at first, which is pretty obvious compared to the later videos.

Well, I figured I'd provide a list of topics. There is no list anywhere else. By the way, I am both obake-san and obake-san's ghost. I like the redundancy of the longer name.

Let's Play videos:

Part Game Section Discussion Topic
1 (27:51) Start and Level 1 Introduction. I don't know...
2 (25:26) Level 2-1 and 2-2 What happened with my first attempt at making the quest.
3 (24:18) Level 2-3 and Class Area Length of the Game. 15 hours is extremely fast.
4 (25:35) Select Class and Class Dungeons C12 and C14 Character Classes: Wizard, Knight, Thief, and Monk.
5 (22:48) Town and Optional Dungeon 1 Level 2 button: Persistent change across time.
6 (27:42) Town 2 Story of the town. How to make the present better.
7 (29:56) Level 3-1 and 3-2 More of the town. Probably not much to say.
8 (34:05) Level 3-3 and HCP Cave 1 Title origin: "Manos the Hands of Fate" bad 60s movie.
9 (27:46) Level 4-1 and Power Bracelet Tilesets and Custom Tiles.
10 (29:56) Level 4-2 and Optional Dungeon 2 Mystery Science Theater 3000 MST3k, the old and new TV Show.
11 (29:56) Class Dungeons C22 and C24 Age of the quest, and why an obsolete version number.
12 (21:26) Optional Dungeon 3 and Money All about Link's Decision 1, released back in 2007.
13 (26:25) Level 4-3 The walkthrough is extremely thorough and detailed.
14 (31:33) Level 5-1 Why I would make a walkthrough, and how I did it.
15 (23:48) Class Dungeon C32 Hard mode: Link's Decision 1 had an easy mode, it was too hard.
16 (27:12) Class Dungeon C34 The music for the game. This is why and how, not a list of songs.
17 (28:41) Level 5-2 and Coin Cave The help cave really does know where to go next in the overworld.
18 (35:21) Level 5-3 The coin cave is from Link's Decision 1.
19 (23:52) Level 6-1 Finished the game from binders of printed maps and descriptions.
20 (36:15) Optional Dungeon 4 and Level 6-2 Chronos is the Ancient Greek personification of time, not a titan.
21 (29:21) Miscellaneous Heart Container Pieces Rifftrax and it's relation to MST3k. Both riffed Manos.
22 (26:38) HCP Cave and Town 3 HCP Cave is from Link's Decision 1, a few of the same puzzle types.
23 (32:16) Arena and Town 4 The town's side quest for the golden statue, and how the town was made
24 (28:21) Level 6-3 Recording and editing the videos of this Let's Play.
25 (30:50) Level 7 First Half The Nine Villages was my previous quest, Zelda 1 and Zelda 2 maps.
26 (29:46) Level 7 Second Half and Ending Zelda Classic and the history. I'm just filling out time now.
27 (46:26) Post-Game Secret 1 The ending story of the game, including how Link and Ganon were tricked.
28 (14:12) Post-Game Secret 2 How I made the dungeons.
29 (32:39) Post-Game Secret 3 How I made the overworld.
30 (52:45) Post-Game Secret 4 How to make a video trailer with free software. Almost a music video.
31 (46:33) Post-Game Secret 5 and Town 5 Anagrams of my own name, and cast metal puzzles because I like them.
post (21:52) Post-production Editing A video of me explaining what I'm doing as I edit part 16.
3X (27:21) Thief Special: Flippers and Mirror Shield This is immediately after part 3. The thief can skip ahead to Level 6.
Tr (2:46) Trailer (Gameplay) No talking. This is just gameplay set to music with some explaining text.
MV (2:38) Music Video about the town They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (not Constantinople)

1 - Introduction. I don't know...
2 - What happened with my first attempt at making the quest.
3 - Length of the quest. This 15 hour Let's Play is my best run, with my paths optimized. Why drag out the videos.
4 - The four character classes: Wizard, Knight, Thief and Monk. Also see video 3X of the Thief's Special.
5 - The level 2 button. Sounds weird, but it was the first persistent change related to time travel.
6 - The story of the town. We need to do something to make the present better.
7 - Town some more. I don't think there was really much said in this one.
8 - Origin of the Title: A very very terrible 60s movie titled "Manos the Hand of Fate"
9 - Tilesets and Custom Tiles. (easter egg SJ)
10 - Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) TV show. 14 seasons and ongoing (public access, Comedy Central, Syfy, Netflix, Gizmoplex) (easter egg MS)
11 - Age of the quest and why this v2.10 quest was initially released in 2022.
12 - Link's Decision 1 (2006) This was the first Zelda Classic quest to involve selecting a character class. (easter egg RM, easter egg DW)
13 - There's an official walkthrough. Here's whats in it. (hint: everything)
14 - Why would I make a walkthrough. Also how. My previous quest from 2007 also had a walkthough.
15 - There was an easy mode and hard mode in Link's Decision 1. It was initially too hard.
16 - Music. I identify every song in the game as we hear it the first time. This part is more about why and how.
17 - The help cave. It knows what dungeon you need to go to next. It only helps you get to the dungeon, not inside it.
18 - The coin cave. You come across it a little more than halfway through the game. There was one in Link's Decision 1. (easter egg TM)
19 - Finishing the quest. I had binders of printed designs, maps, etc. Level 7 and Secret 5 were the only two that weren't designed.
20 - Chronos is not just a bad play on Manos, Chronos was the ancient Greek personification of time. Not the ancient Greek titan Kronus.
21 - Rifftrax is more or less an extension of MST3K. They also made one of Manos the Hands of Fate.
22 - HCP Cave. Link's Decision 1 had one of these also, with some similar-but-smaller puzzles.
23 - The Town is back. The side quest to get the golden statue takes place here. Also the mechanics behind saving the town.
24 - How to make a video. I describe using OBS to record, avidemux to clip out pieces, and Audacity for audio cleanup. All free software.
25 - The Nine Villages, my previous quest. I only made the three quests. It's even longer.
26 - Zelda Classic, what it is and a bit about its history. It seemed like something that could fill out some time.
27 - The end of the game. This is how the white mage tricked Link and Ganon. Didn't anybody wonder why a time travel story ignored paradoxes?
28 - How to make dungeons. Or at least how I make them. I'm really running out of things to talk about now.
29 - How to make an overworld, or in this case three overworlds. Probably not the ideal way to do it, but oh well.
30 - How to make a trailer. This quest has one, which I made with VSDC and Audacity. Both free software.
31 - Anagrams. Why? In the last nine videos, I "accidentally" introduced myself as different anagrams of myself. Also a shout out for cast metal puzzles.

Additional Videos:
3X - Thief Special. This takes place after part 3. I chose the thief instead, but I didn't save the game, so it didn't count.
Trailer - Well, I took a bunch of clips and stuff to display different aspects of the game, and set it to music from the game.
Post-Editing - I made a let's play of me actually doing the post-editing on part 16 of the let's play. A little too meta?
Music Video - It visits the town in the past and the present, which is a little on the nose for Istanbul Not Constantinople. But then something happens, and it's about more than just past/present.


Anagrams:

Starting at part 23 of the Let's Play, I "accidentally" introduced myself with the wrong name. That's nine introductions, and each was different. Those are all anagrams of "obake-san's ghost". That's where all the letters are re-arranged to spell something different. Well, here's the full list of them.

So Go Thank Bases
Shaken Gas Boost - Sloshing the tank? This is the first one I found.
Sank Stooge Bash
Ask the Boson Gas - My favorite one, even though particles aren't a gas.
Goes as Bank Shot
Than Sage's Books
The Book Sang Ass
Banks Go To Ashes - The most coherent one, but if I used it as a name, I'd end up on a terrorism watch list.
Those Knobs' Saga - A stupid or unpleasant person, as in, "What a knob." So the anagram could translate to "the quest of those stupid people", perfect for my Zelda Classic game.

Here's the thing. I had a lot more than that. But I wasn't going to go back and change 22 video openings, and it was funnier starting at 23. So I had a lot of unused Anagrams. Anagrams often make little sense, but many of these are complete nonsense.
A Snag Shook Best
Go Bash on Skates
So the Saga Bonks
She Ganks Taboos
Go Stab on Shakes
Nooks Bash Gates
Boast Snake Hogs
Bong Tokes as Ash
Shoot Bang's Sake - Thai rice wine, like Bangkok.
Stage Bans Hooks
Sage Shoots Bank
Tan Shoes Go Bask
Gash Takes Noobs
Sanest Bag Shook
Banks Goose Hats
Those Gank a Boss
Boa Snake's Goths
Bag Shoots Snake
OKs Tango Bashes
Hobo Stages Sank
SoHo Stage Banks
Stake Goon's Shab
Sang as the Books

Despite finding so many anagrams for obake-san's ghost, I have never been able to find an anagram for my real name. I just think I got lucky with the assortment of letters obakesansghost.

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