Quesada's Swan

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

After five months in this playthrough, I'm back at the beginning!

All of the people we met in our travels are gathered on Vista Hill, watching us arrive...

They're cheering for us!

Bowser's now back home...

Bowser: "Ahhh...the scent of boiling lava...it's so nice to be home..." Oh, Bowser...

Now Bowser wants revenge on Smithy for taking over his castle...

Here's the music for the castle.

The monsters here are now tougher than last time, with a Terra Cotta and two Forkies!

The Terra Cotta and the other monsters are a bit confused by Bowser's presence...

Unfortunately, the Forkies are now alert and start attacking!

Eeee, there's a little Forkie waving hi inside the big Forkie's mouth as the Forkies cast Storm!

I'm betting most of the guards here have been toughened up by Smithy...

More new tough monsters here: the Gu Goomba, Malakoopa, Tub-o-Troopa...

In place of the fallen bridge, there's now platforms...

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Now we're at the main hall...

Inside the mouth of the castle, and this corridor's pretty dark...

I head back to the main hall and pick a fight with the paratroopas at the main hall!

Some of the monsters are now attacking each other!

Making it back to the dark corridor, I hit another chest block in a dead end, containing a Mushroom!

On the way, Mario, Mallow, and Bowser level up!

Some of the monsters are now jumping behind statues to lure us into an ambush! Lucky I avoid that!

Now at another hall, where a save block and Croco (!) await!

I skip Croco and head to a room with six doors before us. The narration asks if we need an explanation for the doors. I have Mario turn back and talk to Croco.

He advises us to save and is now acting as a shopkeeper for us! If Croco's helping us, that means this is serious business!

Croco's merchandise is Fire equipment, and the typical recovery items. I sell the remaining Honey Syrup and the Fuzzy equipment.

I really need an explanation for these doors...

So the 6 doors are as follows:

2 are action courses, 2 are battle courses, and the last 2 are puzzle courses...

Hoo boy...which one to pick, though?

"The only way to know what's behind a door is to walk through it! You must pass 4 of the 6 courses to move ahead."

Holy heck...

I walk around the entrance hall before making up my mind on which door I want to enter...

I am super unprepared for this...I take my chances and go for the middle doors first!

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The first door (Door #4) that I have Mario enter into is a battle course! The red-robed Magikoopa waves their rod and the fight is on, starting with four Terra Cottas!

Now round two, with two Oerlikons and a Star Cruster!

Round 3: Sackits and two cannons named Big Berthas!

I use Geno Blasts to cruise through the battles!

The Big Berthas are very strong to take care of, though!

Peach levels up!

Round 4: two Chows and Forkies!

Geno also levels up!

And that's it for this course...

...or not! In the next door, there's more monsters to fight: an Alley Rat and two Armored Ants!

Round 6: Bloopers and a Star Cruster!

Easy win for that round!

Round 7: Four Stingers who immediately poison the party and turn Geno into a mushroom!

Round 8: Two Geckits and a Chained Kong!

Round 9: A Rob-omb and two Big Berthas!

These monsters just keep coming!

Round 10: Four Vomers! Easy win.

Round 11: Two Magmus and two Pulsars!

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Round 12: The hardest chest monster so far, Chester!

Chester summons a Bahamutt, I'm guessing it's the Mario-verse's equivalent of Bahamut!

I use Geno to boost up Mario's and Geno's attack power!

So Chester can Mega Recover too, huh?

Now it's Bahamutt's turn to be taken care of...

Let's hope this is the end of those battles...

It is! Let's see what our reward is...

It's a Drill Claw for Bowser!

I try and have Mario go back to the room with the save block and Croco. No turning back for real this time...

Luckily, I'm playing on a Raspberry Pi, so I make a save state at this point, and stop here.