Annotated Appendix: The Colosseum

Here's some actual inside dope about the making of this episode: It went wildly out of control right after I picked up the Shield Rod. Let's talk about that first.

See, the Colosseum is a relatively circuitous area of the game, not necessarily a straight line. This is good from a design perspective, actually; the player will find themselves wandering around in similar, though not redundant (it's not that big of a level) locations sussing out the best ways to get the Form of Mist relic, which is on display behind an obstacle from the second they walk in. Do they stumble into the boss fight right away? Certainly possible since it's pretty close to the entrance. But for the sake of a video series like this, boss fights are good places to end episodes since you can easily put a period on things that way. That meant showing the majority of the location before jumping into the final showdown, which takes a little cartographic forethought.

Totally blew that. What you don't see is that I save the game after grabbing and explaining the Shield Rod --a holy object to most players that destroys the game-- and lose track of where I was and what direction I was going. Not that big of a deal since I can just edit stuff together, but I had to reset the game and start from that save room, losing video footage of actual item drops that I could point out. Lame. Worse, I went through the second run at a faster clip, which meant that I had to re-record some of the dialog to reflect that I had already passed some rooms by the time I could actually talk about them. From the standpoint of you, the viewer, I wonder if you're ok with that. Sure, some places mean that I have to just sit tight and blabber for a while, but in terms of less significant spots like the torture chamber where the Blood Cloak is found, it probably isn't that big a deal. Hmm.

What you can also probably glean from my voice in this one is that I'm sick, and have been for weeks. This may be something you care about very little because you have cold, black heart and don't really give a poo for my well-being. That's fine. For me, and the fact that I'm doing this whole thing for some perverse sense of posterity, I want to get these out the door in the best possible state they can be in, which means that I was trying to get better first. Since I have the cold that wouldn't die, though, I made the executive decision to just get it out the door. So there.

Anyway, enjoy episode 7. I'll map the rest of the library and probably move on to either Orlox's Quarters or the Underground Waterway next (probably the former).