Part 44: Chapter Thirty Four: Endless Ocean

Last time we woke up Grandpa the whale by defeating the stone doll embedded in his stomach. It goes without saying that we’re about to gain the ability to sail across the sea on his back.

Music: 16 – Sleeping Beauty











:…Huh. Well, I guess there are less useful things in the world than a whale that can take us anywhere with a beach.

: We’re pretty spoiled for choice, then!





: If that’s the case, then our next destination is clear. We should immediately set off for Melodia.







Music: 02 – My Home Sweet Home



The game automatically transports the party to the beach in question. Let’s check in the cave and see if Malliol is at home.



: Hey, old man, we managed to wake up your whale. He’s swimming around the cape right now as we speak.

: Incredible! The whale is finally awake again, after all these years! Now I can commune with the great sea creature, just as I used to so long ago…

: Uh, ‘scuse us, but…we’d like to borrow your Whale Bell for a little while. Is that alright?









Alright, with the Whale Bell in our possession our horizons have been significantly expanded. All we have to do is go outside, move down to the waterfront and press ‘A’.

Music: 27 – Breath of Fire



Grandpa appears and you can then press ‘A’ again to hop on his back.

Music: 11 – It’s a Whale



We can now cruise around the oceans of the world. There are a number of things we can do before we advance the main plot.



Filling out what we can of the World Map is one. But there’s another thing we can do that’s far more important. Now that we have the whale, we can recruit Breath of Fire II’s secret character. Part of me wanted to hold off a bit until we got a little further in the game, but the completionist side of me demanded they be recruited immediately.



First of all it’s necessary to swim to this exact location on the World Map. Basically you start at Township and hug the coast downwards until you round the bottom and start going up again.



The very first beach you arrive at is the one you want to disembark at. Once you do, take SIX steps up and ONE step right. This is important because this area is full of high-level encounters that will happily slaughter you if you run into them.



Doing so brings the party to an underground dwelling inhabited by Wisps similar to those found in the first game.



: If you’ll be kind enough to leave a message, she may get back to you sometime next century.

Both of the Wisps say the same thing.



: Has Lady Deis hit on you yet? Don’t worry, she will eventually…



That’s…a lot of bottles. The chest contains a Token, which we can’t actually use since we picked the normal carpenter. Anyway, now that we’ve talked to all the Wisps it’s time to Warp back over to Newhaven.



Our next stop is the magic school. I’m sure those of you who have played the first game can see where this is going…



We go upstairs…



Remember when I said to remember this particular NPC? You’re about to find out why.











: The legendary, beautiful sorceress…oh, and one-time co-saviour of the world? Eh, never mind, that was before your time! You people look like an interesting bunch. I think I’ll hang around with you for a while!



That’s right, it’s Bleu from the first game, back and ready to kick ass again. How ready, you ask?







Uh…well…Jesus Christ. Deis joins at level 35, fourteen levels higher than Ryu and with some rather high level gear right off the bat. She starts off with an enormous compliment of spells and a titanic AP pool means she can keep slinging them around for a long time. She’s also not a squishy mage, since she has 199 HP and her battle ability, Shed, lets her recover all of it at once in exchange for a small defence debuff.

Deis only has four more spells left to learn, and she’ll learn all of them before level 40. In addition, whilst most characters hit a ceiling and start getting only marginal stat gains on level ups past a certain threshold, Deis will continue getting full level up bonuses until she hits level 99. There are a few spells that Nina will learn that Deis won’t, but for the most part Deis will eventually turn out better than her.

So yeah. At her current level any battles from here on out until around the end of the game will be a complete joke, which is why she’s going to be spending quite a lot of time benched. Sorry Deis, but for the time being you’re just too good to use.

Oh yeah, that’s right – Deis also has a field ability. Like Bosch and Lin, she can take part in the hunting minigame.



Unlike the others, Deis doesn’t have to be directly in front of her target. Just press ‘Y’ as soon as she enters the screen.



Deis raises her staff high and the screen turns red.



Every animal on the screen is slain in one blow by Deis's magic. Now to harvest those sweet, sweet Roasts.



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Anyway! There are a few other things we can do with our newfound freedom, but for now let’s get on with the story. Our true next destination is this island right here. The tent proves that the carnival is here, so without further ado…



Music: 14 – Crazy Dance



: Hey guy, we’d like to buy some tickets, please.





: Oh non! I do not like the sound of that…



: What!?

: Yeah, what the hell?



: Damn, that’s sick. But it looks like there’s no other way to get to the back room. Dammit, we’re gonna have to buy a ticket.



Oh dear. We only just arrived and already the Grassman is in danger of being eaten. Will the circus master be reasonable about this? Of course not, but we’ll have to press on anyway, particularly since the hardest boss in the game is coming up very soon.