Castle Destinies

Asuka decides not to finish looking through the entire list. She’ll save each item until she completes the previous one. She doesn’t know why, but she feels like keeping them all a surprise to herself for now.

Flipping back to the first page of the bucket list, she reads the objective aloud. “Number one,” she says, “finish ‘Castle Destinies’.” She quirks her lip, already reaching a hurdle in her plan. Where is she supposed to acquire the game, let alone the console for it? It’s been quite a long time since she last recalled Kyo playing it. She looks up, trying to think of where they might have put it. Setting the notebook back on the desk, she tries looking around for it in case it might still be here. She checks around the desk, under the bed, and examines every little knickknack around the room in case she might overlook the tiny piece of hardware. With no luck she sighs and reluctantly turns toward the one place she had yet to scour.

Though Asuka had always felt welcome to come into Kyo’s room as she pleased, Kyo’s closet was the only area he had told her not to look through. Normally this would make anyone curious enough to take a peek inside, but Asuka shudders at the idea. What if he was hiding something embarrassing like a dirty magazine collection, or a creepy shrine to a pop idol, or a jar full of toenails or something? The idea makes Asuka hesitate, but she pulls herself out of it. “Well, now or never,” Asuka thinks as she approaches unknown territory, bracing herself before opening the doors and squeezing her eyes shut.

Whipping the doors aside, she slowly scans the inside with one eye. It’s relatively normal for all the fuss he made about it, at least compared to her imagination. Beneath the row of hanging clothes on the rack were three different plastic bins. She decided to choose a methodical approach, starting from the rightmost container to move to the left. The first bin was a stack of three drawers and, thankfully, were just full of socks and underwear, which she would take over erotica any day. Not letting her guard down, she resumes her search until she gets to the second bin. The first thing she pulled out was an analog camera. She checked it for film, but it was empty. Rummaging further told her that this bin was full of old keepsakes like unused wires and other junk. Asuka wonders if Kyo was sentimental or just forgot to do something with them, but she’s grateful either way when she spots a large gray box.

Gasping, Asuka excitedly removes the game console from its hiding place and holds it up. This is definitely Kyo’s old MSX—she was more of a handheld gamer herself, so she never ended up playing on it too much unless it was a 2-player game. Blowing the dust off she inspected it for damages, but she would only be sure after plugging it in. One controller that goes with the game system is found in the same place, its blue plastic frayed but appearing to be in relatively good shape.

Accomplishment blooms in Asuka’s chest after recovering the first step toward her new goal. Now all that’s left is finding the game itself. It will be more difficult to locate the cartridge unless Kyo kept all of them organized, but he didn’t actually have that many games to begin with. His interests tended to vary too much for him to dedicate himself to one hobby. She pushes aside crumpled papers, broken headphones, and more wires to things probably long gone, but doesn’t find anything resembling what she’s looking for.

Disappointment dampens her previous triumph, and she sits back in resignation. She’s not ready to give up yet, but she was really hoping everything she needed would be in one place right away. Asuka begins to reach for the third storage container but something above her catches her eye. What looks like a black bag is resting on the shelf above Kyo’s clothing. She stands up to get it, lifting herself up on her tiptoes until her fingers swat it down. The bag is thick and rectangular like a work folder but opening it up reveals a folder containing various CDs. She recognizes them as something that used to belong to their father who used to listen to them religiously when she was a child.

Before she gets the chance to flip through every compartment, Asuka notices the game cartridge she was looking for slipped into a pocket on the inside sleeve and grabs at it like a starved lion. The picture that should be on the outside of the cartridge has been scraped off through years of wear and tear, so she sets the folder aside and immediately tries to pop it into the MSX. Initially inserting it incorrectly, she turns it, and it happily locks into place. “Yes…!” she breathes, both relieved and excited. She won’t have to go on a hunt around the house after all. Eager to make sure everything works right; Asuka makes sure to put everything back where it was before leaving and closing the door to Kyo’s room.

Seated in front of the television, Asuka connects the console and its wire together and…. She is greeted by the MSX start up sequence. Silently cheering, she feels determination well up, ready to give all of her attention to her mission. “Castle Destinies’” hopeful and cherry intro begins, threading nostalgia through Asuka’s heart. The game’s soft-faced protagonist stands before a looming castle town, waiting for her to start their journey.

It begins with a young protagonist who lives in the castle town, Magoria. The tutorial comes in the way of completing various tasks for the residents of the town. The setting becomes more and more familiar to Asuka as she moves through it. Minutes into the game, all hell breaks loose when a horned monster appears and kidnaps your little sister and releases its minions into the town. You’re tasked with protecting the villagers on your way to retrieving your sister from the clutches of this evil.

Despite the time the game was made, Asuka is impressed by how well the game’s first cutscene holds up despite the polygonal graphics. As the main part of the game looms closer, Asuka begins to feel some trepidation. In the past when Kyo passed the controller to her, she would get frustrated with how easily she would lose to enemies and often got lost on where to go to complete the next objective and never managed to finish a single level. She grips the controller in her hands, resolve still flowing through her. If she can’t beat this, how can she trust herself to move on the next items on Kyo’s list?

As she completes each objective, Asuka starts to realize that maybe the difficulty was exaggerated due to her age at the time. She had already gotten in some practice with video games as she grew up, so the first few levels aren’t as hard to clear as she had originally anticipated. Her first “game over” came when she had to fight one of the first boss enemies.

After dying a few more times on the way to the next stage, frustration builds until it manifests in an exasperated sigh that was closer to a growl. Slamming the controller down with one hand, Asuka realized she was starting to feel weak. “Ah,” remembering how little she ate that morning she reluctantly lifts herself off the floor to get something to eat. She contemplates the situation on her way to the fridge; at times like this, she would go to Kyo for help and would enjoy watching him struggle with somewhat less difficulty than she had, as he was a more avid player than her. She dejectedly opens the fridge. The only thing left is the onigiri she ignored earlier, and a bottle of strawberry flavored Pokey Sweat. She takes them both and settles onto the couch for a short break.

Asuka unwraps the packaging the takes a bite of the rice ball. As she eats, her stomach feels as though it’s rejecting her meal because of how much she’s been neglecting it these past few weeks, so eating isn’t a very pleasant experience as it readjusts to receiving nutrients. Restricting her food intake was one of the ways she punished herself for being alive in her brother’s stead. But she knows she’ll have to keep up with her health if she wants to complete Kyo’s bucket list properly and silently agrees to herself that she’ll eat way more from now on.

5 hours into the game, Asuka catches herself nodding off in the middle of a collect-athon mission and checks outside. As she played the light in the room had ebbed away, bathing her in darkness with only the moon to supplement her vision. She considers going to sleep, but looming fear of the meteor keeps her on edge, despite being supposed to hit 11 whole months from now. She still feels a strong sense of urgency forcing her to put her all into completing the game as soon as she can.

The sun reached its peak at 12 o’clock noon and Asuka has only slackened her hold on the controller for bathroom breaks and water. She can feel the end inching closer. The weapons she receives from each correct NPC she speaks to, as she gets hints from them to advance to the next stages. By this time, she had made a companion who is a mage to complement her status as a warrior. Together they conquer enemies like they are mowing through grass, and finally, the ultimate showdown between them and the monster who kidnapped the sister challenges you head on. Asuka begins to shake, both from excitement and sleep deprivation. By now it has been another 12 hours, but Asuka feels she has been sleeping long enough to spare enough time for this.

She realizes that this boss is the one her brother had been unable to defeat when they were children. Back then, he had died to this boss quite a few times before our parents had to take us somewhere so the carpet could get refurbished by a cleaning company. But when they had finished and we returned, Kyo saw that they had unplugged his MSX, undoing all of his progress up until then because he didn’t have a memory card to save the data. She had never seen him so enraged, and he never picked up “Castle Destinies” again. It’s actually a rather silly story, but she can’t say she doesn’t get it.

The monster gives them one last monologue, now revealing his evil plan to destroy the world and rebuild it in his image. You and your companion cut him off during the cutscene and he accepts your challenge, officially starting the fight. Now is the moment of truth, anxiety spills from Asuka’s fingers, but she just shakes the sleep from her head and locks in.

She tries and tries and tries, swinging her sword in every way she learned during the game while her companion aids her with health boosts and sneak attacks, but the way the enemy maneuvers are too confusing for her to predict, much less in her sleep deprived state. On her thirteenth try, she is just about ready to put the controller down when she lands a critical hit. This time, new dialogue is triggered, and the next stage of the monster is achieved. Bellowing in rage, angered by the thought of getting defeated by lower lifeforms, the monster grows to colossal heights. He threatens to destroy the world right now and begins charging up a devastating attack that will ruin everything if it hits.

Though excited by the change in development, Asuka has no idea what she’s supposed to do to stop this attack. The monster is too big to do damage with your sword, and your companion is almost out of magic energy to make a blast big enough to counter the it. When all hope seems lost, you hear voice in your head. The protagonist recognizes it as his sister, who was trapped in a cage the whole time. She is unconscious but speaks to you telepathically to share what she learned about the monster’s weakness during her time in its presence. It had gotten arrogant and bragged about there being only one thing that can truly defeat it—a spell. A spell that has the ability to seal him away for more than 1000 years. The reason it put her to sleep was so that when you came, she wouldn’t be able to reveal it to you. Unfortunately for the monster, it was unaware of the psychic abilities she had been gifted with when she was a baby, and she spent her time in captivity practicing using it for a moment just like this.

After getting the summoning spell, you grab your companion and together you combine your powers to form an ultimate move. The game has Asuka mash buttons in a repeated sequence until the light glows from your sword, powered by you and the magic of your friend which glows brighter and brighter until it shoots up into the sky and sucks the monster into it. A chaotic display of screaming and confusion ensues, until it disappears, taking the monster with it.

Your sister floats down from the cage she was held in, and you catch her. When she opens her eyes she throws her arms around your neck, “I knew you would save me!” she beeps. “I didn’t do it alone” the protagonist admits, turning to his mage companion. The two of them share a smile as the scene fades to the next. The game ends with townspeople gathering in the square and throwing a party in your honor that lasts for an entire week. You, your companion, and your sister are seen sitting off on a lone hill overlooking the festivities and gazing at the stars as the credits roll.

Almost too exhausted to celebrate, Asuka lifts the controller over her head in accomplishment. Her tired mind thinks back to how frustrated she was trying to beat each level, but the satisfaction of having completed such a difficult thing for her resonates deeply though her soul. The state of her brain almost makes her forget why she was even playing in the first place. Rolling onto her back, Asuka stares at the ceiling.

“I did it, Kyo,” she whispers, “I know it’s not much, but I’ll keep going until the end, for you.”

Her eyes sting, and sleep overtakes her while her hot tears cool on her cheeks. “I promise....”