Part 21: Update Twenty One: In Our House At R'lyeh...

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Cthulhu Saves The World, the Narrator was a dick and apparently didn't think that we would want to destroy the world, despite us knowing that was our main goal. He also wouldn't let us have a happy ending, and caused R'lyeh to rise from the bottom of the sea, which offers our ultimate challenge. We're going to tear through a good part of it today, so let's get crazy.



So, as I mentioned in the thread, I won't be doing Cthulhu's Angels. At least, not right now. I'm a little disenchanted with the Zeboyd games at the moment.



They're still good games, don't get me wrong, but the lack of life in the dungeons is getting to me, as is the repetitive music, which actively fades into the background, but not in a good way. Some of the dungeons just drag on too long and looking at the same repetitive tilesets is getting to me.



But, enough of my bitching. We're about to do the special swamp fight.



Remember the sewer dungeon from Breath of Death VII? There was a miniboss of sorts in there, and the Ooze Dragon was it.



It's not quite as special as you'd expect, but hey, kind of a fun callback. Not as fun as having the main protagonist of the last game join you, though. Anyways, as for strategy on this guy--



Pretty much just crush him with your strongest attacks.







Soon, we'll get to the point where everyone is gaining these generic levels, and at that point, I'll stop showing them off.

Okay, let's get into R'lyeh. We're taking Umi, October and Paws with us for the final bout.





And that's all the fanfare we get for entering this place!



I could see how that'd be a huge pain in the ass.



I'm not even sure how'd you go about programming that; sure, have a line of tiles as the marker for when the event happens and then flag the tentacles appearing, but how do they actually appear?



Unless it was a battle tile, and after the battle, your path becomes blocked so that you don't actually have to program the tentacles ripping out of the walls.



That wouldn't be too hard, would it? I mean, it'd require a ton of different maps and warping you to those maps after the fight, so maybe that's not the best idea.





Some of these dungeons feel a little uninspired.



There's no real life to them; there's nothing to make me think that there is more going on here than what we're seeing.



Take the Lunar areas of FF4; they had a very alien vibe to them, like you were somewhere that you shouldn't be. Magus' Castle in Chrono Trigger is very similar to that, but there's also a distinct feeling of evil within the place.



Then again, the music really nails those vibes. This game doesn't have the huge variety of music that those games do, and it really suffers for it.



Alright, I'm done complaining for reals this time.





Holy crap, those guys look really pissed off.



Is it really cosplay if it's Halloween?



The Mariana Trench is about seven miles deep, making it one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. If you were to reach the bottom, you'd be crushed into something resembling hummus.



I can totally see that guy rocking out at a Slayer concert.



As for this guy, I'm pretty sure he'd be the first shoved outta the mosh pit.





Other than big physical damage, there isn't much about these guys to note.









Dacre already has pretty good HP and this would just make it better.



But, hey, 25% to the party's stats is always better.





There are a few treasures to snag on this floor, and they're pretty good things to have.







Nothing really special in this encounter; just your standard upgrades, pretty much.



Huh, there's no :goth: smiley. That's kind of odd.



I bet he's trying to start his own Christian rock group, too. I can see him shredding.



They have absolutely insane physical defense, though. Cthulhu or Sharpe would barely break 100 damage against them; Paws can do full damage, but that's because the Anti-Matter Claw ignores defenses, which is the shit.



Magic will also wreck their shit, no problem, so I have no idea what they're capable of in combat.





They're not too bad, all things considered. They look a lot worse than they are.



Hell, their holy men pimp smack harder than they do.



As well as being able to heal the enemy party. It's nothing I can't erase quickly, but it's just...







There's the stairs to the next floor, but we're not popping up there just yet.



Thankfully, I know which way is up this time. And which way is down.



We'll be snagging those treasures first.



And fighting new monsters along the way.



The Teethchu has 2,080 HP and nothing special about it. It might have a special physical, but they tend to not live long enough to show it off.





A bit later, about ten steps, we get into another fight.



With a Tchode.



So...Nobody calls him that. Gotcha.



They're about as strong as anything else around here and get their asses beat just as well.





First, we find a great piece of armor for Cthulhu.



I'm not sure why this is here instead of in Cthulhu's closet, but I'll admit, I don't know the first thing about where eldritch abominations store their clothes.



Before we get the next bit of treasure, let's have some levels.





I take the five hit version, as I'm wont to do.



While Umi gets a general level.



Hrm.



The Deathblow was tempting, but if I'm using something like that, I'll just use the Cthulhu/Sharpe Unite tech that does the same thing but at a much higher power.





October gains an extra hit, because if I'm going to sacrifice my combo, it's going to be for something much stronger than that.



Paws gains some extra Strength.



And Dem gains another round of stats.



From that, we're done with showing off levels. They'll all now be the choice between extra stats or the HP/MP boost, and I'll take the stats each time.





The giant bug is the asshole here.



Not only do they have a good chunk of HP, but they have one powerful attack that I dread seeing.



Starfall deals pretty good damage, and to the entire party. It only gets worse after the first turn, and if you turn them Insane.



They're a good priority target.





Now that is a weapon I can get behind. Look at those stat boosts!



Alright, up we go.



The second floor is a bit shorter than the first, especially since I don't have enemies to talk about.



And it's true; this bridge is fuckin' looooooong.



It's a really long bridge.



That's about half of it right there. It's just really fuckin' long.





But eventually, it does end and we emerge onto the second floor.



I do like the Cthulhu statues around here.



Cthulhu seems like the type to decorate his pad with statues of himself.



Oh, crap, I forgot I had one enemy to explain on this floor.





Fittingly, it's a tentacle monster like Cthulhu, but in a more traditional form.



Aww, that's special.



Here's Death in action. It just kills an enemy.

I know, I, too, was expecting something that looked fancier than that.







That chest we just saw holds these 1-Ups.



And we press ever deeper into R'lyeh.



I can type "Cthulhu" without having to double check it, but R'lyeh makes me double-check each time.



It's the apostrophe.







Up here is a new weapon for Sharpe.





+2 hits? Hell yes. That puts him at five hits with this weapon equipped.







And from here, we'll grab another treasure chest.



With some more emergency supplies. I shouldn't need these, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.



Okay, let's get to the next floor and the save point.



That's also my break point for this update.



We're pretty close to the end of the game now.





But, that's for next update, where we fight one of the hardest bosses in the game.

Stay tuned!