Part 19: Update Nineteen: Not The Worst Factory I've Done
Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Cthulhu Saves The World, we entered the town of Innsmouth and learned that Dagon is a gigantic dick who is trying to steal all of Cthulhu's followers. Today, we're going to start tearing apart his foundry and base of operations, so let's get crazy.This place is actually pretty goddamned big. The encounters actually start at 35, where most of them before have been 15 to 20.
Though, from our previous explorations of places we shouldn't have gone to yet, we're going to be kicking the shit out of everything in here.
But, uh, not in that dead end. Though, that does remind me of another factory.
Maybe it's just me, but if I see any Espers around here, I don't think we'll be converting them to Magicite.
Not that we have to worry about that.
Huh. Fishmen and creeps in robes.
Deep Ones are Lovecraft creatures that serve Dagon, Mother Hydra, and our main man himself. Let's head over to the Wikipedia for more information.
Wikipedia posted:
Lovecraft describes the Deep Ones as a race of undersea-dwelling humanoids whose preferred habitat is deep in the ocean (hence their name). However, despite being primarily marine creatures, they can come to the surface, and can survive on land for extended periods of time. All Deep Ones are immortal; none die except by accident or violence. They are said to serve the beings known as Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, as well as Cthulhu. They are opposed by mysterious beings known as the Old Gods, whose powerful magic can keep them in check. This detail is one of the vestigial hints that August Derleth developed as the mostly unnamed Elder Gods.
"ARE YOU READY TO ROCK"
Deep Ones would be much tougher, but we're much tougher than we're supposed to be.
We'll be seeing a lot of the Deep Ones around here, and there will be an upgraded version later on. I'm rather fond of their design; it's pretty simple and nothing fancy, but it gets the point across pretty well.
Also, here's Dem attacking. He's pretty strong, but that comes at the cost of not being able to switch his equipment.
And Dark Priests can heal their teammates, so it's a pretty good idea to take them out first. We've got enough power attacks to drop everything in this encounter in one shot. And for most encounters, actually. There's one or two enemies around here that we can't one shot, but some sustained fire will drop them like they're hot.
I like this dungeon, for whatever reason.
Maybe I'm a bit of a sucker for factories in video games. I've never really minded them at all.
Well, there's that factory in Rogue Galaxy, but I'm talking about the mechanic, not the actual location. Fuck that factory.
And fuck this chest. Someone is an asshole.
Regular Innsmouth citizens are wandering around in here, too. Besides being well dressed, there isn't much interesting about them.
Oh, God, you just know he does an off-brand top ten list.
And we just made him throw up on himself. I guess the threshold for insanity is different in different folks.
I don't think I have any shots of what the Innsmouth citizens do in battle. It's a little difficult to keep them alive.
But, hey, dem's the breaks.
While a still shot doesn't portray it, those conveyor belts are moving; if we step on them, we're whisked away to wherever they lead.
Another common feature of factory dungeons.
Something funny is that if you're holding down the dash button, you move along the belts that much faster. If you don't, you just crawl along it.
We'll be getting a few different weapon upgrades in here, despite buying a few different ones out there.
Umi isn't using Flood very much anymore; her Strike skills are her bread and butter right now, and I'm really beginning to regret not training her up to be a physical avatar of destruction.
But, what's done is done. I can't really change that now.
Were I insane, I'd replay the game up to this point, doing that for Umi, but...
Huh, I was fully expecting a Castlevania reference. I'm kind of disappointed.
Well, that was an image I could have lived without.
It's such a cute little being of pure evil!
Well, it's not cute anymore.
That was never cute.
This is the worst the Medusa Heads have to offer.
Which is nothing on what our worst is.
I've never worked in a factory, but I've heard some horror stories about it.
If you work in a factory, kudos to you. That sounds absolutely terrible.
Well, those are some ugly creatures.
I'm not even sure how you go about pronouncing that.
However, these guys are a bit tougher than the other enemies we've fought up to this point.
As in, they could pose some sort of a threat, even now. They could drop Umi if they wanted to. Cthulhu, too, if he was hit with a couple of those Doom Slashes.
Aside from that, they're nothing to really worry about. While the priests can heal them, if you blast the man-bats with your power attacks, they won't be a threat.
Oh, what the hell, game, I already have one of these!
It's not the only piece of repeat equipment we'll be snagging in here.
We'll be splitting the factory into two updates. There's a good break point near the end and there's a lot of dialog after the boss.
I just saw a video on Facebook where two girls were having an argument, and one of them ends up throwing a shovel at the other.
That's not really relevant to this, but I'm not sure what else to talk about.
I want some waffles.
I'm watching Dead Like Me, and they always eat at Der Waffle Haus, and I want some waffles. And hashbrowns.
And a side of sausage and bacon. Well, I say a side, but I have an appetite like a starving hippo, so I really mean more like half a pound of sausage, half a pound of bacon, and enough hashbrowns to make the Irish jealous. And waffles just drowned in syrup and butter.
But no orange juice; I'm not a fan of the stuff. It gives me indigestion.
Aww, it's so cute!
And I will do so with extreme prejudice.
Aww, they're trying so hard.
For the sake of the viewers, I chose not to display the terrible destruction of the Trashies.
Alright, moving on.
Onto a conveyor belt.
Oh, hell, I need to say something, don't I?
Or maybe not, since Dacre is here to save my bacon.
Well, old man, looks like you're getting ever tougher.
We rode a conveyor belt over here. I'm not sure why there's repeats of previous equipment, especially stuff that came from a bonus dungeon.
I'm sure there's some sort of a reason for it, but I can't fathom it right now.
Especially something from a bonus dungeon; knowing that you can just grab it later on in the mandatory dungeon seems to really cheapen the reward.
Jesus Christ, this place is goddamned big.
I remember it was big, but until I'm trying to think of what to talk about and laying it out in screenshots, that really drives home the size of this place.
Playing it is different, since there are battles all around to keep things interesting. If I showed you guys every fight I got into, this update would be five times longer.
At least I can tell you about this. When we flip this switch, the conveyors are turned off, so we can move freely across them.
It makes navigation a little easier and it makes grabbing some chests easier. In fact, I thin it's a bit mandatory to get all the chests.
There's nothing else left to do on this floor, so let's scoot up.
Up to more factory. Or foundry, rather.
Oh, hey, now I have some more of these.
I'm not quite sure if I'll need them, but I like to be prepared.
We're about halfway through the dungeon at this point.
But we're not taking a break just yet. We're about halfway through the update.
Although, I'm going to be a little less detailed on the rest of this dungeon. You've seen the basic gist of it, so there's no reason to keep putting you through it.
Dem can gain levels, but it takes the full 99,999 EXP each time.
He won't gain any new skills or anything, either, just stats or HP/MP.
Not that Dem particularly needs any new skills, since his current loadout is pretty good.
He doesn't have a huge variety, but what he has is pretty strong.
Aside from being the protagonist of their previous game, Dem isn't actually all that special. He's not game-breaking in any way, but he's another strong fighter and a decent addition to any team.
We work our way over here, where there's another conveyor belt switch.
With that off, we can walk across the conveyor to get this chest. We could have just rode it, but, eh.
We can't ride this one, though. It'll just spit us back to this spot.
And then we wouldn't have this fight!
Deep Knights are the upgraded Deep Ones I mentioned before.
This guy, though, is pretty much Lovecraft himself as an enemy.
And we can make him throw up on himself.
Deep Knights are just a bit tougher than their brethren, and they hit harder, too.
Aside from this, they can also revive the other enemies at full HP. They have some strong attacks, but I'm always delighted to see them show up.
Because they drop huge amounts of EXP and Gold.
Which means a shitload of levels.
The other option is +50 Magic, which isn't how we've built Cthulhu.
I know most of you are thinking that I took the Water/Ice boost, which I thought about. I took the Elec Boost, since Umi's strongest Strike skill is Electric based.
Sharpe becomes a little better at everything.
While I give October a good, single-target "fuck you."
I make Paws a bit stronger.
And up this conveyor is another bit of new equipment.
If Insanity were an effect our party could suffer, I'm sure that this would automatically make Dacre Insane.
With that nabbed, let's move on.
We've been going up, but it really looks like we're heading down into a storage area.
It's not something I noticed right off, but looking at it now, this would have been better if we were heading deeper underground.
Maybe that's not how a real foundry would work, but we're dealing with a Deep One foundry. It'd probably run a little differently.
I wonder, do the Deep Ones have a union for their foundry?
I mean, they're immortal and stuff, but they still need a fair wage and some decent working conditions.
At least there's safety railings and stuff up. Deep Ones are able to bet killed by violence, so they could still be killed in the foundry.
And, of course, accidents will happen, but what about the family of the Deep One killed?
To break that up, let's have a level up.
Ember, bubbe, I don't keep you around for your magical talents. I keep you around because you can hit someone, breaking their pelvis, legs, and ribs all in one shot.
My wife and I are very close to having our baby.
I'm guessing within the next week, if that long.
If you follow me on Twitter, you'll probably see it blow the fuck up.
And I don't usually tweet all that often. I find I just don't have anything interesting to say.
I'm not sure how some of the people I follow do it.
Unless people secretly do give a shit that I just took a shower or what I'm watching on Netflix.
Though, if you do care, I showered about half an hour ago and I'm currently watching Dead Like Me. On Hulu.
Dacre, you round out nicely.
But the other option is a bit different, with a +40 Magic. I still take the +15 to everything.
We find another new piece of equipment, this time a new weapon for Paws.
And what a weapon it is!
Moving along--
--Holy hell, I gained a lot of EXP in this dungeon.
Why did I even take this shot!? You all know what Dem is getting for a level up!
But maybe not Cthulhu himself.
The other option is a magic based version of this skill.
Umi, take some extra Strength. You make better use of it.
As does Sharpe; the +40 Magic won't do much for him right now.
This was kind of a hard choice, but I took the single target, 100% version. It'll serve as a nice button when I need one.
Paws grows a bit stronger and faster. Backstab will benefit from that.
We cross another conveyor and see our final staircase.
This definitely looks like a basement. If they had switched the staircases around, this would make much more sense.
Because, seriously, why the hell are your top floors flooded?
But, that's not a question we'll have answered.
As we're taking a break right here. Next time, we'll take down Dagon and open up the final dungeon.
Stay tuned.
Post Update Fuck Up
Ryushikaze posted:
Uh, look at the stair tiles, you Have been going down. The progress stairs are a downstairs tile that takes you to an upstairs tile.
He's absolutely right! I was looking at my shots incorrectly and got myself confused. This dungeon layout totally makes sense now. I'm not going to go back and fix it, since I'll just live with the fuck up. Good on Ryushikaze for pointing that out.