Part 20: Chapter XVIII: This Is Why You Don't Antagonize Someone Who Has A Bazooka

Chapter XVIII: This Is Why You Don't Antagonize Someone Who Has A Bazooka

Welcome back! Last time we crossed the ocean, crossed it again, did some repair work, and ended up in a place called Dragnier.

Dragnier also plays the main theme






Seriously, I need to stop posting updates involving food when I'm hungry.

Griol: Please, be at ease I am Griol, the patriarch of this village. All of us here... are the same as you. We are all Brood... Master Ken.



Garr is shocked by this revelation. I mean, wouldn't you be?

Griol: Do not be alarmed, Guardian... We gave up our powers and fled here during the Great War.

: So as not to be found by us Guardians?



Old woman: Hee hee hee--Exactly! All in preparation for this moment!

: This moment...? What do you mean?

Griol: You will know... soon enough But for now, please rest and be at ease, Oh Dragon Prince, and noble companions...

Old woman: Please, eat this... This meat will restore the strength sapped by the desert's heat.

That's right. There's a handful of Brood survivors here, but none of them can even transform. They somehow gave up their powers and became normal humans, and these are their few descendants.

Anyway, Ken, being the good teenager he is, takes a nap after stuffing his face.



Ken wakes up outside in the village, somehow.



We have been awaiting your coming, Ken, Prince of Dragons... It has been foretold for many generations.



After our defeat by our enemies, they tried to wipe us from the face of the earth...To survive our people either had to give up their power like we here have, or bury themselves deep, deep underground...



Our brethren who hid underground... Many of them entered a deep sleep after conceiving a child. They slept, to await the time when one day, the Brood might walk the earth again.

That more or less explains Dauna Mine. All the dragons who chose to keep their powers hid/fled underground, and their fossilized remains became chrysm. Ken is the last remaining Brood from that group and as such is the only one who can still become a dragon. This makes him their warrior from their prophecies. Ken was actually created at the end of the Great War, but he'd been asleep until Gary and Mogu came by and woke him up.

And seriously, Ken is becoming incredibly badass by this point, so they could do a lot worse. I'd go as far to say that this is the most powerful incarnation of a Ryu in the series (barring the ridiculous overpoweredness of Dragon Quarter's transformation)



And now, that day has arrived! The Prince is soon to awaken! Ken...You have come here... To the forgotten city of the Brood, Dragnier... Call it destiny if you will... We can tell you where to find what it is you are seeking... Where to find your foe, the goddess Myria.

At last our ultimate enemy has a name, Myria. And it's confirmed that she is indeed a goddess, not a god.



Ken... You must awaken to your true power... And then... you must face the goddess...



Old woman: Ken... You fell asleep after the banquet... If you're looking for your companions, they are all outside...




: Look who's awake... The Brood are pretty amazing... Who would've thought they were still alive, living in a forsaken place like this... I wonder how Garr feels right about now? I mean, being in a city, surrounded by people who used to be his enemies... He's over there, looking depressed... Let's go try to cheer him up...

Rei may not always be the sharpest spoon in the drawer, but he's far from stupid.



This is our second-to-last equipment shop, and it's got a great sword for Ken and that armor is pretty great for Ken, Rei, and Garr. Also, stock up on Multivitamins, they restore all your HP, and we're approaching the point where they're more useful than their weaker Vitamin counterpart.



: It's called a Rakda



: They must have been waiting for you to come and restore the Brood to their former power... They sure are patient, aren't they?



*obligatory poo poo joke*



Griol isn't so sure you should be trusting Garr. I suppose he has a point, we have no real proof that Garr just wants to give Ken to Myria to take care of, other than blind faith. But I think Garr has proven himself. Garr can't really hide secrets very well either.



: .........Even if they have forgotten the War... I am still the sworn enemy of every person in this village... All the people here... They're suspicious of the fact that you, Ken, have brought me here with you...



: I've come with you on this trip because I have lost my faith, and have come to doubt my own actions of so long ago...



: But I know that is not a good enough reason for all the men and women of this village to trust me.



: The War has not ended in the hearts and minds of these people.



: Well, maybe so, Garr... But what are you getting all gloomy about? OK, so maybe... the people here want Ryu to take his power, and go teach your God a thing or two... And maybe it's not so realistic to think we can drop in on God and ask about the truth... But still... You're the one who told us to tag along if we wanted answers to our questions... You know what?



And Rei wins the Awesome Award for this update for being the person to FINALLY call Garr out on this.

: Anyway... it doesn't matter what the villagers here think... What's important is what Ken thinks! Am I wrong?

Exactly! Garr is Ken's friend, and the rest of these people are strangers. Sure, they might be scared of Garr and not like him, but I'm sure Ken was scared of the giant gargoyle man who just stood there and watched while he was held hostage and who later beat the crap out of him.



Griol: Ken... The Elder wishes to meet with you... He is the eldest of us all... Of all the Brood, only he remembers the Great War... Go to the well in the village center. The Elder awaits you inside, underground.



This is where the elder is. This guy is Horis, and he'll become relevant later.




And we find the mural from the opening of the game.



That door on the left has an Ivory Dice if you wanna snag it. I didn't because I really don't need it anymore.




You've come... Welcome, Ken... I am the Elder, Jono... Don't let my looks fool you--I'm a nice guy. Come here, my son...



Jono: My son... Did you see the mural as you came in? That... is the history of our people's struggle







Jono: Myria... The god of the Urkans --the god you are seeking... Of course, it seems the Urkans never refer to their god or their enemy, the Brood, by name... Speaking of the Urkans... I want to talk to your friend the Guardian... Bring him here.

It's a small line, but the reference to the Urkans never referring to their god by name is actually kind of important. If you've played the original Breath of Fire (Scintilla did an excellent LP of it, I believe it's in the archives), you know that the final boss was named Tyr, but it should have been translated as Myria. She's keeping her name hidden so no one connects the dots.



Jono: Guardian... I have to hand it to you Urkans... and to Myria... When you decided to get rid of the Brood, you didn't hold back at all, did you? But you must realize one truth... As long as you refuse to speak your god's name, or the name of your enemy, no one will ever know what became of us, or why...

That's another cool line. Did Jono and Garr meet on the battlefield at some point?

: Oh, Honorable Elder One... Do you hate us?

Jono: Hate...? There are maybe some among us who do... But I do not, Guardian... One cannot allow himself to be blinded by hatred, or spill blood for a petty reason... What happened between the Urkan and the Brood...was fate...

: Fate...Honorable Elder One? What do you mean, Honorable Elder One? Please, tell me!




And Jono wins Awesome Award number 2. I don't believe in being formal like that either.



Jono: I've had enough of talking to you! From now on, the only thing I want to see is a pretty girl! Understand? I made up my mind--I'm only going to talk to the women!

Way to get us in trouble Garr! Dick.

A pretty girl, eh? Momo's kinda pretty, and I bet she'd have tons of questions for him about the past.






So apparently Jono doesn't like gingers. And Rei laughing his head off is a nice touch, and it only happens if you bring him along. Ken, Nina, Garr, and Peco won't laugh.



And Momo is ready to smack the shit out of this old guy. And holy shit will she kick his ass.



Jono: That's better... Now listen up, little lady...I'm going to tell you about the fate of the Brood and the goddess Myria.



Jono: That's more like it...Good girl. Now listen close... The Brood and Myria have always fought... Down through the ages, and all across the world...

: Is it because she was trying to destroy the world, and the Brood were trying to protect it?

Jono: It's not exactly that simple, child... Think about it--that would mean the world wouldn't be here after we lost the great war, now would it? Besides...the real danger to the world might be us Brood..



Jono: Our power is such that we could destroy the world...And the goddess Myria feared that strength... And decided to destroy us...

: But... so... does that mean... Ken is an evil dragon?

Jono: No, no, child... Don't get ahead of yourself... We lost the war because we didn't use our power... If we had fought back with all our power...We might have indeed destroyed the world...

: So, you mean... The Brood were concerned with the fate of the world? They're not evil?



Nina is visible relived by this, with yet another animation used once and only once.

Jono: Well, that's not exactly right either. I want to tell you something important, so I want you to come up next to me here...Will you do that?

: Like this?

Jono: That's it... Now, kneel down..

...I'm not sure I like where this is going



: What!? Ken... What should I do?



Either answer has the same result, it affects jack and shit.



You have no idea how many tries it took me to get this picture. That heart is there for like half a second.



Jono: Ho ho ho ho ho! Well, I got my kiss, so now I've no regrets! It's time for me to do what I must... Ken...Come here




Jono: The Brood...we...have waited... Waited to bequeath the true power of the Brood to the one we knew would one day come...



Jono: That's why we gave up our power and came to this lonely barren place... To hide that power from the prying eyes of the goddess...



Jono: To fool Myria into thinking she had succeeded in eradicating the Brood...



Jono: I don't know if our ruse worked... But we have guarded the essence of the Brood all these years. Here, in me...




Jono: Ken... Blood of my blood... You must take the power from me... But... In order to guard against discovery by the goddess, we placed special magic wards around this room...









Jono: In other words... Here, you will be unable to use your Brood powers I will use the true power of the Brood... But you, Ken--you must depend only on yourself to defeat me...

Yeah, we're not gonna do that. See, you pissed Momo off. And when Momo gets pissed enough, she gets stronger than any dragon you got.



One thing you need before going into this fight, especially solo, is the Ring of Fire and the Thunder Ring. Jono uses Inferno, Sirocco, and Myollnir, plus a pretty strong physical attack AND Double Blow. And that physical attack can OHKO Momo as she is, so the first step is to have her cast Protect on herself a few times. Fortunately, she's faster than Jono, so she can heal up after each attack. I cast Speed a few times and Momo starts to EX turn him. And then we cast Might.

The rings make his magic a non-issue.

Yeah, any Momo SCC basically involves doing that over and over.

And even more fortunately, Jono uses a learnable Skill called Bad Back, which is a literal waste of a turn. It would have been right at home on Durandal's Skill list. He uses this every third turn.



And this is our plan of attack.




Shadowwalk is a beautiful, beautiful Skill. An unmissable critical attack? This was custom made for Momo. And it's only 8 AP. And holy god that damage. Jono has 6000 HP.



Easy peasy. Also, I feel I should mention the strategy from the Prima Strategy guide for this game. The Prima Guide is infamous for it's countless errors and shoddy workmanship. First of all, it recommends being level 30 with a team of Ken, Momo, and Garr, and it STILL describes the battle as difficult. Momo just beat this guy in her 20's with no issue, and it still would have been easy without Shadowwalk.



Dude, Ken didn't do shit except fall on his own sword.

Jono: Very good Ken... You have proven yourself to me... Very well, Ken I will bequeath to you...the true power of the Brood. Come here...



Jono: I give unto you... The very essence of the Brood...The power that can shake the very foundations of the world...



Also known as Agni on Infini.

Jono: With this power, the world is in your hands... Listen to me, Ken. This is the power which the goddess rightly fears... It is in your hands now... Yours, and your friends'... Always, the warrior of the Brood... Has fought with his allies, his friends... And together, they have defeated the goddess... But... you needn't follow that path... If you so... choose The power is yours, Ken... Do with it... what you will!



He's right. Infinity is fucking bonkers if used right.





Griol: It looks like you have discovered the power of Infinity... Very well then... I will tell you where you can find the goddess... You must leave here



Those words strike fear and annoyance into the hearts of players.

Also hey wanna know a simple way to distinguish "desert" from "dessert"? Dessert has more s's because you always want more dessert. Fun fact for the day.

Griol: Horis there will tell you more...

: So, before we leave, we should talk to that man Horis, right?



And having Ken examine the mural opens up our last Master, Ladon. Ladon will only teach your characters once you have every single Dragon Gene in the game, but he's worth it.

Ladon
- HP-6
- AP-6
- Power+2
- Defense+2
- Agility+1
- Intelligence+2
- Flame+3
- Status+1
- Death+1

Ladon is an awesome Master, once you get your HP and AP where you want it. After that, there's no reason not to use him, and his passive boosts help a whole bunch. He's got some great Skills, too.



Horis: You're ready to leave, then? I'll go with you as far as the desert...



And he actually does. He shows up in camp for the next little bit.



Also, we do some grinding. Nina's Blizzard and Momo's earth spells make the next area a breeze.



And here's the Dragnier description along with our last ring of flowers. Fortunately, we've gotten pretty much everything we need from C-Bo.




Ladies and gentlemen, I present our last "road" dungeon! No bosses here, just a simple maze.



Egg Gangs are one of the weirder enemies in the game. They can turn characters into eggs (remember that status?), and do decent damage with physical attacks and Magic Ball.



What the hell are these doing here?



Pipe Bombs are the last in the Bomber family. They still have sky high defense, but these cast Protect on their first turn.



But fuck that. Nina can OHKO them with Blizzard.



Also, Adult Ken Egg has a bandanna.



Hobgoblins are the last in the Goblin line of enemies. They cast Spirit Blast. If they appear with a Boss Goblin, the Boss Goblin will cast Influence on your party, but the Hobgoblin will attack the Boss Goblin. And you can steal Power Foods from them.

The whole outside area is just a series of paths leading to doors and treasure we don't really need. It's pretty simple.



Upstairs is (I believe) a Skill Ink.




That door leads here, but we can't cross the beams. However, on the other side of the room, obscured by the wall and camera angle, is a hidden ladder.



The Rockbreaker is an earth elemental weapon for Peco.



That path from a few screenshots up takes us here. Have Momo blast it and find...



A weapon for Garr.



Gold Eggs are special. They drop a shitton of Zenny. However, if you hit them with physical attacks, that amount keeps going down so go after them with magic. They also have a tendency to run away and cast Resist. They also have a 1/256 chance of dropping one of the ultimate helmets in the game, the Divine Helm. Fortunately, a more common enemy drops them later.



Giant Orcs recover 122 HP per round and have a high reprisal rate.



Also Egg Momo has her hat and it's awesome because eggs in hats are awesome.



This is a simple puzzle. Hitting a switch lowers the blocks but opens the electrical current, meaning you have to go around it. Do it quick.



Looks like Nina got left behind. Fortunately, once you exit this way, the puzzle never has to be done again.




This corridor leads all over the Factory.



And we've had these for a while, so I don't know why it's in a chest here.



And one of the doors takes us here, letting us turn off the beams for ease of travel.



And another Homing Bomb for Momo is case you missed the one in Kombinat.



Almost done now.



This is a cool little puzzle. See that workbot in the top left? It moves as you move, and when you do your characters triangle button action, it hits whatever is in front of it.



So we wanna use the boxes to stop it according to how we need it to move. Does that make sense? It's kinda hard to describe, but it's pretty simple once you see it.



And before leaving, we find another Hourglass, which will be used shortly.




This is a seriously long stairway.



And for some reason the Egg Gang never wanted to hit Nina with Ovum. This took me like 20 minutes to get.




When in doubt, blast it!



And we're now in the desert.



Horis: Anyone can come this far... Now comes the hard part: The Desert of Death... A land of ever-changing sands... Where nothing lives, and from which no one returns...

: That's what everyone said about crossing the ocean...

: I get the feeling that God wants to be left alone...

Horis: I don't know anything about that... But I do know the goddess lives beyond the desert. You must cross the desert... I'll tell you how to survive long enough to get there. Ask me anything What do you want to know about?



I'll explain most of this next update, but the important thing is the water and walking. Essentially, you have a canteen, and it has 16 servings. While walking in the desert, you'll occasionally get a message saying you should have some some water. 1 serving is enough for the whole party. Basic stuff.

Next time...we conquer the Desert of Death...during the day