UG Multi-World Sessions?

[Moonface]

I forget if I said already and CBA to go check but I did connect everything without issue earlier (I disconnected since then because I wasn't gonna just leave everything running for 2+ hours sitting idle) so I can hook up now since it seems everyone is set up.

[Dragon Lord]

Yep, all ready to go and just awaiting confirmation from everyone else and whether or not anyone wants to do a voice call while we play.

[Mr EliteL]

I'm ready to start. Hell, I've already jumped in just to see what it's like, seems to be working alright. The main issue for me is that I'm already running into enemies way stronger than I am, so I got to try and grind some levels and try to avoid getting OHKO'd, which has happened already too many times. Aiiie! There's at least one set of enemies I can beat, and they seems to spawn the same group in an area. I think I've found all the items in the first area at least.

[Moonface]

I just finished doing everything that had become available to me since stopping last night. I think I sent at least one progression item to each person in the current run, so hopefully that lets the rest of you make some headway until I have more things become available to me.

Also, it might just be because Ape Escape is a special case when it comes to Dual Analog control, but just in case, I found that loading my game via a save state caused some funky things with both my controller and the game itself:

• Both analog sticks were unresponsive
  
• The UP and LEFT buttons on the D-Pad were unresponsive
  
• My character was permanently running forward with a slight left rotation, and any item that involved swinging would be swung and kept in a held state preventing movement.
  

Loading the game up normally and just loading the save file fixed it, so no big deal. I'm mostly bringing it up should anyone else using a controller happen to load via a save state and have things acting unusual, because I tried multiple things before just loading the game and save file normally so don't want someone else to waste their time going through the same motions.

[Dragon Lord]

I've pretty much done everything I can in Dark Souls 3 too. I only have The Ringed City DLC left to clear out and if I don't find the basin in there, or if someone finds it in their game before I clear out all of TRC, then I am in "BK Mode" until someone finds that basin. It locks the rest of the main game out for me.

It could potentially be in one of the shops I have yet to unlock as well, I suppose, but I'm in need of a huge amount of keys in order to unlock doors to get access to those shops. Either way there's a lot I need and I'm quickly running out of checks, haha.

I have to say though, this has been insanely fun so far and I hope we can do another one some time soon once this is over. There's so many games I want to try in this format. It'd be nice if we could do some voice calls too just because shooting the breeze while we work through our games would be pretty chill and fun.

[Moonface]

I haven't checked today, but yesterday I had all but the final level unlocked. Unfortunately, one of the new levels that had unlocked for me decided to set my random spawn to behind a door that is locked by the only Monkey Lamp check I hadn't received. Better yet, in vanilla that lamp opens a door to a singular room with a single monkey to catch in it, so instead of having a whole level to at least get monkeys in for checks, I got to be stuck in a room with a single monkey to get instead. I didn't check but for all I know anything important for me or someone else could be in the rest of that level; what I did check was where that Monkey Lamp check is and it's in @Mr EliteL's game. As for where the check is to unlock the final level in my game it's either in the little of my game I couldn't do yesterday or in someone else's game.

That aside, an interesting thing I've learned while playing my game for this is that it might be possible to beat the entire game without ever using the Dash Hoop gadget. It's the one gadget I have yet to receive, but anywhere in the game I always thought required it has actually been doable without it, including a boss fight. Even if I somehow get that gadget before I fully finish my game, I'm going to refuse to use it just to see if you can beat Ape Escape without ever using it. I would wonder if AE2 and AE3 can be beaten without the Dash Hoop either but I'm pretty sure both of those games do have sections that can't be done without it, although AE3 might be possible depending on whether or not you get access to certain Morphs earlier than you usually would.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, unfortunately your lamp is locked in an area that EL is unsure about getting into. He can't go in the intended way because the item he needs for that is locked in that location itself, so he's been trying to find another way to get to that location. That's the good and bad about this type of thing. Some times you might not be aware of an alternative path and the game might lock what you need for the normal progression in the area you're trying to get to.

I know that's possible with Dark Souls 3, where the game might give you the Basin to unlock the Dancer fight (and thus progress into Lothric Castle) at the very start of the game, when normally you're not intended to do that until way later in the game (though you can turn on settings to ensure that you don't have that happen, but where's the fun in that????).

It can definitely turn the game into a frustrating experience. Like I'm decently experienced in Dark Souls 3, so having to do early Dancer boss location and go into Lothric Castle at the start of the game wouldn't be terrible (I've done this multiple times in casual play throughs), but for people who haven't played Dark Souls 3 as many times as I have, it would definitely be a game ruining experience.

[Mr EliteL]

I managed to locate your missing Lamp, Moony. Don't think I found the Dash Hoop in mine though but you're not going to try not to use it anyway.

I've got the same problem as I had before, though the previous time it was me missing that I could easily progress in Chucklehuck Woods when I thought I needed to go into a section of that same room for further progression, but instead it just had three item blocks in there that I'm currently missing checks for as I still don't have the ability.

This time I'm genuinely stuck to progress in WooHoo Hooniversity that requires the ability I need, as I STILL can't get past Trunkle (a boss) to get into Fungitown. I need to have Peach spawn in Teehee Valley so I can escort her into Fungitown, thus triggering the battle encounter with Trunkle, which needs me to have completed WooHoo Hooniversity, but can't because the ability spawn is locked in Fungitown. I spent hours yesterday going back and forth between those two areas plus the Airport which happens between these two, but I already beat the boss in the Airport but nothing happened as the plot for the game is stuck in WooHoo Hooniversity. However, I can go ahead and beat the two final areas without all this as I have all key items I need (minus Red Goblet) and can currently access the second to final area, as I've already played most of it already, but it means missing out on checks the Red Goblet provides, meaning I won't get 100%.

There was two other ways I could get into Fungitown, one is a glitch that I can't do because I have an extra ability I shouldn't have at that stage in the game that prevents it (which gives an extra frame to cycle through an already near impossible glitch to perform). The second is going through an area with solo Luigi, but seems it was coded to block the area off to stop that being necessary, but it had a pipe to Fungitown in that. Instead was a short rectangle room with the single item block that would've been in a normal run, and one enemy, that's it.

Some areas were already opened for me to go further, but not in that area. Makes me wonder now, I already completed latter parts of the plot before these, so perhaps I should've made sure I did not do anything beyond the Fungitown section of the game, then progress WooHoo Hooniversity and the Airport in order as those are the story points to bring in Peach for the escort mission, that is needed to face Trunkle, to gain access to Fungitown. OR, as it is the boss in Chucklehuck Woods and Airport are the bosses to defeat plus escort Peach to face Trunkle, get to Fungitown, THEN do Woohoo Hooniveristy after as it could be skipped temporarily. It's the only thing I think of, but the possibility of Hammers, Goblets, Firehand/Thunderhand could be in Fungitown in an Archipelago run would cause the same problem, potentially(?). I mean it screwed me this run anyway.

[Moonface]

Just finished my game, and surprisingly there was actually a single spot in the entire game that requires the Dash Hoop. There's one door in the final level of the game that you can't get through before it closes unless you use that gadget, but if there's a way to do it without the gadget via exploits or glitches then it would render that gadget as completely useless.

[Moonface]

Having had a bit more time to reflect on it after finishing, I really hope Ape Escape 3 gets added as a supported game at some point. It would have a lot more to work with compared to Ape Escape in terms of checks, traps, randomization, etc.:

• 434 monkeys compared to 204 in Ape Escape.
  
• 8 code monkeys which have to be spawned in via entering a code, and thus could be something other players have to find in their game to make them spawn in.
  
• AE3 has one less gadget compared to AE1, but introduces Morphs of which there are seven. All gadgets and morphs have a training room for a total of 15 (8 gadgets, 7 morphs), whereas AE1 only has 7 training rooms for gadgets (the two starting gadgets don't get a training room in AE1 but do get one in AE3).
  
• 20 levels and 8 boss fight levels to unlock, compared to AE1's 19 levels and 3 boss fight levels. Technically AE1 has 7 boss fights but four of them are within levels, as the series didn't make all boss fights exclusively their own level until AE2. If Archipelago could do it, then there are actually 13 boss fights in AE3, because the Freaky Monkey Five have to be fought again after capturing Specter for the first time.
  
• 22 Pipo Camera movies of which 20 are found within levels and 2 are unlocked after beating Specter.
  
• There are no Monkey Lamps in AE3.
  
• AE3 does not have Specter Tokens to collect, but instead has a shopping district with items to buy, which would provide the following possible checks:
  • 8 items that always replenish, but any could be swapped to be an item for another player like how it was for @ShiraNoMai and @Dragon Lord in the shops of their games they did in the first session we just ran.
    
  • 30 Movie Tapes
    
  • 50 Music Discs
    
  • 4 Genie Dance Tracks
    
  • 2 RC Car Bodies
    
  • 3 Minigames
    
  • 30 Teleborg Cards
    
  • 20 Weird Photos
    
  • 30 Secret Photos
    
  • 30 Concept Arts
    
  • 20 Channel Guide Books
    
  • 20 Mon-Fiction Books
    
  • 20 Hint Books
    
• For traps, I think everything AE1 has as a trap is possible in AE3, but these could be added:
  • Gadget Steal - Monkeys can steal your Stun Club and/or Monkey Net from you, and you have to attack them to get it back. When they try to steal it from you, you get attacked and drop the gadget, and the monkey will try to pick it up before you do. The trap could make it where you just drop one of those gadgets as if you had been attacked.
    
  • Player Capture - This would be incredibly mean, but monkeys that steal your Monkey Net can potentially capture you with it, and if that happens you are immediately kicked out of the level. The trap would act as if you had been captured, so it would basically just instantly kick you out of the level you're in, hence why it would be a very fucked up trap to enable.
    
  • Morph Disable - If the player is currently in a Morph form, the trap would kick you out of the form. In vanilla you stop being in Morph form if you run out of Morph Energy or choose to manually end being in Morph form.
    
  • Morph Energy Drain - Drains an amount of energy from the players Morph Energy bar. Useful as a morph related trap that doesn't rely on the player currently being in a morph form.
    

There might be more things I didn't remember, but yeah, there is a lot of stuff Ape Escape 3 can add to the number of checks and items. Makes me wish I knew how to do it myself because now I want this supported badly enough that I'd try doing it myself instead of waiting for if/when someone else does it.

[Mr EliteL]

Well as I finished up Joke's End in my game, I get the small cutscene leading to the final area. However the Beanbean Kingdom was half in it's normal music in the houses/shops areas, but by the castle it was in the wrecked music. I checked with Queen Bean and got the cutscene of her welcoming Peach, meaning I can finally go to Fugitown! So weird my game as been, all over the place. I can finally go back to places I've had to miss.

Got Bowser's floating Castle next, though I'm down to 23 checks remaining. The check list doesn't make sense though for me to know what I've missed, as it checked Mini Mario areas before I had the Red Goblet, plus there's apparently 28 checks at Bowser's Castle yet my counter has 23 left. I also know at least two are also from Yoshi's Theater, as I'm missing the Red Neon Egg plus the Beanstar Piece as an item you get there normally. I'll play until before the fight against the final boss and see where that leaves me.

[Moonface]

Well for you all that's left is finding anything needed to get to your goal and then just achieve it, since there's nothing left for anyone else in your game. If you just have the one required item left I'd suggest hinting for it to just find it and save searching but that's me.

I also learned that Ape Escape 3 does have Archipelago support, just not officially, so that's definitely going onto my list of games to run. Probably won't do it as my next game just to keep some variety but also I do love AE3 a lot to be down for just playing it again as soon as possible.

[Dragon Lord]

I would love to see some more games added myself. Super Mario RPG would be an amazing addition for me... at least until I'd have run where something super important was locked behind the 100 Super Jumps and then I would just cry in absolute despair, haha. I've never accomplished 100 Super Jumps on the SNES version of the game. I only accomplished it on the Switch remake because they made the timing slightly more lax and the upgraded visuals of the game actually made it easier to use visual cues for when to press the button.

I'm really tempted to try KH2 with this though. That just seems like an insane game to do as a multi-world randomizer, and being one of my all-time favorite games, I think it would be a blast.