So I finally got Basilisk up and running over the holidays and decided to play through it again. I bought the Official Hint Book sometime back in the nineties, played it incessantly as a teenager (although I wish I hadn't spoiled it for myself right away two decades later) and with the game's plot thoroughly memorized, I've started looking for ways to play it that make it a bit more interesting.
So I settled on trying to max points (all items, maybe eating the Easter Egg after beating the game for the extra point of treasure bonus the second gemstone gets) while minimizing damage and doing a speedrun. It's not the most optimal combination, but since the game gives bonuses for time in increments of ten hours I'm going to forgive myself the fact that I could have optimized a few save-rune-to-save-rune jaunts.
The game (or progression of saves) that I'm playing now hasn't been optimal--I decided to save the yellow crystal for last for reasons I can no longer recall, there's some backtracking on longer levels when I was tired of playing the same section three dozen times (They May Be Slow... and Beware Of Low-Flying Nightmares come to mind), I had to spend fifteen minutes sitting in place spawning ammo for the long fight down the hallway to the Big Blue Meanie...
but I got through at least three areas of the game I could have sworn you couldn't without getting hit and I'm sitting now on Lasciate Ogne Speranze, Voi Ch'Intrate an hour and 45 minutes into the game with my 6 original health and wondering if it's possible to get to the Center of the Labyrinth without getting blindsided by a sphere. It's not like I expect to beat all the Greater Nightmares in the last level without taking any damage at all...but the first hit's been the hardest to give up.
Opinions are welcome--I'm just procrastinating another death-by-sphere respawn anyway...
