A note about Monster Maker (especially for Black Tiger)

[runinruder]

If any of you guys are entertaining thoughts of playing through Monster Maker (recommended for fans of slow battle systems), you'll want to know about this severe glitch. 
 
Black Tiger and I both played far into the game and got stuck in the very same spot: a tower room with two stairways, both of which essentially lead to dead ends (they both lead to the same next room, but the walls of the room "magically" reconfigure themselves so that you cannot proceed no matter which stairway you took). 
 
I started a whole new game a few days ago and figured out how to get past that spot.  Here's what you need to do:
 
When you enter the tower in question for the first time, do not leave it until you reach that spot.  This can be hard and annoying because the tower is quite large, and you have to find a "hidden" stairway in order to even make it to the tricky spot in question.  Level up a lot beforehand so that you can run away from at least most of the battles.   
 
When I reached the room with the two stairways, I took the left one up.  I was at a dead end, but this time, my characters had a conversation.  I didn't go back downstairs; instead, I took a few steps forward and walked behind a wall and more text came up, and then a new stairway was revealed that led to the next part of the tower. 
 
If you enter and then leave the tower without making it to that room first, your characters will never have that conversation, and you will be stuck at that spot FOREVER.  Yep, all those hours it took to get that far will be wasted.  That's what happened to me the first time I tried the game, and probably to Black Tiger too. 
 
Oh, there are a lot of towers, so I should probably specify which one it is.  It's the second one you have to visit after you get the "Orc Dragon" to ride.  It's to the west of a town that has an inn that charges 160 gold pieces.
 
Thanks to Laurent from VGDen, who mentions such a glitch in his review of MM.  He said he read about it in documentation for the game, but never got far enough to verify that it actually existed.  Well, I can now verify it.  I turned the game off immediately after figuring it out because I rushed to that point and my characters were severely underleveled, so I haven't gotten any further yet, and I don't know if there's any other such bullshit yet to come.  But I'll report back if there is.       

[Black Tiger]

Hurray!

I'd planned on playing through again to see if I could sort that b.s. out, but I'm so glad that you beat me to it so I can confidently play through the game without fear of having all be for nothing. I really liked Monster Maker, but its been tainted by that glitch and I've never gone back to it since.

This can be hard and annoying because the tower is quite large, and you have to find a "hidden" stairway in order to even make it to the tricky spot in question.

One of the reasons this can be tricky, is that there are multiple hidden staircases in the same tower, just as there are throughout the game, but as far as I remember, only one of them leads to the top of the tower.

[guyjin]

that's f*cking horrible. 

[runinruder]

I discovered another weird glitch a little earlier in the game.  The orcs give you a hot-air balloon that you're supposed to ride to a (different) tower.  Instead of hopping into the balloon immediately, I wandered off to do some leveling up.  Occasionally, when I'd re-enter the screen with the balloon, it'd be replaced by some sort of garbage sprite.  At first I paid no attention to this sprite, but after it appeared multiple times, I finally inspected it, and found myself warped back to an old kobold-inhabited town. 

From that point, you can revisit the old locations (which might actually be kinda worthwhile if you think you missed something, like a spell or a treasure chest) and even re-recruit old party members who left (although they'll leave again at the appropriate spots in the story).  I should probably mention that I'm not 100% sure that you can make it back to where you were, because I got sick of repeating the old stuff after just a few minutes and loaded up my proper file, but it seems entirely possible (the boat you need to sail across the sea to a different area is right back at its original dock, for instance).  And, from what I saw, you don't need to re-fight bosses.

Along with these glitches, the game occasionally freezes during voice-acted parts and frequently chokes while loading up combat scenes.  It's strange how a game can seem so nice and polished in many different ways (especially the battle graphics) and be so screwy in others. 

[Black Tiger]

I had to replay that early castle with an unconcious/poisonined(?) prince and a bunch of the same single orc(?) enemy. The game crashed so many times in different spots in that castle. At one point, I almost gave up on the game.

[runinruder]

I had to replay that early castle with an unconcious/poisonined(?) prince and a bunch of the same single orc(?) enemy. The game crashed so many times in different spots in that castle. At one point, I almost gave up on the game.

Yeah, I know the part you're talking about because it f*cked up on me too, both the first time I tried playing the game and during this current run.  I also encountered some problems at the scene where you have to fight a girl and her big cat bodyguard.  I think I tried to speed through the text windows ahead of the voice acting, and sometimes the game freezes when you do this.  They wouldn't want the adventure to move along at a decent pace, after all.

[runinruder]

Well, I feel kinda cheated right now.  I just beat the game, and the conclusion wasn't very satisfying.  I knew that MM2 was in the works and never saw release, but I didn't realize that it would have picked up right at the very second where the first one leaves off.  You see, MM ends with a cliffhanger.  Just as I was thinking, "Hey, this cinema isn't so bad," the proceedings were interrupted by "to be continued."  There wasn't even what I would consider a proper final boss, as the last beast was a total wimp.  (Actually, pretty much all of the bosses are wimpy.  If you're at a high enough level, you can use the Freeze spell over and over again to render them helpless, even the last guy.) 

The cliffhanger thing might've been more acceptable if 1) part 1 hadn't been such a pain in the ass to get through due to the glitches, and 2) you know, part 2 had actually come out.

Black Tiger, here's some good news for you.  After you beat the tower with the famous glitch spot, there's just one more tower to go, and then the game is over. 

[Black Tiger]

I knew I'd almost finished it.

[esteban]

You guys rule. I wish I had gotten far enough in this game to see the "Tower Glitch" you're talking about.

I have been listening to the music from Monster Maker, though.