Part 41: Recruiting Spree

Welcome back, and thanks for your patience. Last time on Exit Fate, we infiltrated Vishnu Citadel, cut Pereious's army in half, and drove the mountain tribes out of Kirgard. Before we could celebrate too much, however, we ran into Clint in Ashton Port, who gave us some rather grim news: whatever occult event occurred when Daniel was born has happened again. We have no idea what this means, and there's not much we can do about it, so for now we're just going to have to move on with our retaking of Kirgard. But before we do that, we've got a whole new area to explore and a ton of new characters to recruit. So let's get to it.

Music: Ashton - Chrono Cross, "Termina (Another World)"





Since we're still in Ashton, we might as well see what services the town has to offer. It turns out that all there is to see is a magic shop, which sells the elemental shield and strike spells. While these do have their uses, frankly I don't think they're worth the money at this point in time. We may have to invest in them later, though.







Instead, I pop over to Trarcia and do some weapon upgrading. Between Ayara and Klaus's upgrades I also finally get around to clearing out the old accessories and armors from our inventory, which gives me a decent chunk of money.




Music: Faraday - Xenogears, "Singing of the Gentle Wind"

After that, it's back to Elysium to use the teleporter. We've got a whirlwind tour in store for this update, and our first stop is Faraday.



Specifically, we're looking for this guy right here. We saw him on our first visit, but all there was to say about him was that he had a portrait. Once we've retaken Vishnu, however, he'll suddenly be a lot more talkative.



I am doing my thesis project on magical theory, and I've already finished most of my work. I just have to prove that my results are correct. My aim is to develop offensive magic that's not connected to any element. I have all the formulas worked out, but I'm lacking a key ingredient. I need some rainbow ore, but it's very rare around these parts. I haven't been able to get my hands on any.



Fortunately, we have. If you'll recall, we found some Rainbow Ore in a chest while we were infiltrating Vishnu Citadel.



... This is definitely the real thing. With this, I could finish my work... I'll get started immediately! Come back later and I'll show you the results!



We can't get results from Darwin immediately, which is why we came here first. I believe the amount of time Darwin takes to finish his work is tied to the game's play time clock, so for now we'll head elsewhere and check back in with him at the end of the update.



For our next stop, we pick up Shadfork...



Music: Cento - Suikoden II, "Due Fiumi"

... and head over to Cento Temple. Shadfork mentioned in his interview that he had challenged a foreign warrior to prove the superiority of his size, and he's now shown up. So let's go see him.




We find him in the temple's inn.



Fade to black...



I'm not sure it was worth my time challenging you!
Hah! Your mouth is as big as your body! With all that mass, it's a miracle you can still move your limbs at all!
Hah! It wouldn't matter even if I couldn't! With those thin arms, you couldn't put a dent into my body of steel!
Hah! I've shattered stone with my fists. All those layers of fat won't protect you! But enough with the talking! Let's fight!



We will have to postpone our duel to some other time.
Never! I will not let this opportunity pass!






We shall see if size truly matters!



Tong Wu's specialty is in all of the stats on the right side of the window. Specifically, he has the highest DEX in the game, and only King, Klaus, and Rorschach can even compare in that regard. His SPD, ACC, and SKL are also all quite high, and combined with a decent STR, he's a passable warrior. That said, his defenses are pretty damn low, especially his PDF, so you probably don't want him up front unless you feel like gambling on his DEX. He can do all right as a mid-row fighter, but I'm not sure you'd really want to replace Klaus for him.





Tong Wu's weapon of choice is his nunchaku, but not surprisingly, most warriors have better damage than him.



Music: Jargo - Wild Arms 2, "Town Where The West Wind Blows"

Next up, we're going to head to Jargo to take care of a few errands.



First, I grab Battle Plan #1 for 5000 Arn because why not.



You'll also notice that this door, which was previously blocked by a guard, is now unoccupied.



It's locked, but...



... Reod (or any other thief) will happily open it for us. How on earth you're supposed to realize you can do this is beyond me, since usually Daniel saying "It's locked" translates to "You need to find a key." But there you go.




Inside, we find a rather snappy dresser.

Hmm, I see... so you picked the lock and broke in. You fool, don't you have any idea who I am? Turn back now and leave immediately. I will not tell you a second time.



I'm not even going to try to guess what would possess Daniel to consider this.



Hmm. I don't know what the meaning of this is, but like everyone else, if you want a favor from me, you must first prove your loyalty. Find me a rare black ruby and then we'll talk.



Rare my ass, we've got two of them already. These can be stolen from the Hoarders outside Trarcia, though if you don't realize that they carry them, you can also find one in a treasure chest very late in the game.



I see, so you really did find a black ruby. This is certainly a surprise. I wasn't expecting to hear from you again after giving you such a ridiculous task.






I suppose this move will give me plenty of... opportunities.



Marcello is our fourth and final thief. He's got the best defenses of any of them (though that's not saying much) as well as a surprisingly decent MAG rating, a little better than Daniel's. His main problem, though, is that while his SPD is good overall, he's the slowest of the four thieves by quite a bit, and since all you'll really want to use him for is to steal things, having fewer opportunities to do that is generally bad. But he'll get the job done.





Marcello attacks with his razorwire... somehow. I'm not really sure what's going on here.



Also, I mentioned when we recruited Reod that you could catch him stealing by having a thief in your party. Unlike Joe and Rorschach, though, doing this with Marcello will actually result in a bit of extra dialogue. I don't have it screenshotted, but here's what he has to say:

Ahem.
Ahh!! It's you!
I see you're working hard on gathering the money you owe me. Very good. Unfortunately, you can't pay off your debt with money you steal from me.

So now we know whom Reod is in debt to. When Daniel proposes adding Reod to our ranks, Marcello will also chime in:

That sounds like a good idea. I'll keep an eye on you.



Music: Trarcia - Chrono Cross, "Arni Village (Another World)"

Right then, now it's time for us to start actually doing stuff in Kirgard. The first order of business is to check in with this guy in Trarcia. He won't show up until Vishnu has been retaken, but now that he's here we can talk to him to start a small sidequest.



Uh, I guess that's me.
I implore thee! This quest I am burdened with requireth strength far beyond mine abilities! A noble friend, by the name of Soth, hath departed without notice. I fear for his life!
What makes you think something happened to him?
Friends we are, and comrades-in-arms. All our life was spent with sword and shield, for we were to become knights. Such was our dream. We were to uphold honor and justice, as knights are wont to do. With such valiance do we struggle for righteous purposes. Alas, no more! 'Twas but weeks ago, yet no man hath seen his presence since! The sole knowledge which I have: he hath been sighted near the entrance to a foul cavern filled with hideous beasts and molten lava! And a man accompanied him, whose identity I know not!





Welp, I think we all know what the answer to this is going to be.

I am indebted to thee!




And Sef joins us temporarily.



Sef is pretty mediocre, honestly. Like a few other characters we've seen, he doesn't have any particular weaknesses, but he also has no strengths. He looks like he's supposed to be a warrior, but his STR is far lower than most of our other characters who fit that role.





His attack is similarly generic, a simple slash with his sword. When a warrior can't break 100 damage on the orcs outside of Elysium, you've got a problem.



Music: Kirgard 2 - Xenogears, "Wings"

Anyway, we can now also explore the southern part of Kirgard that we've liberated. To the northwest of Trarcia is Vishnu Citadel, which we can enter if we so desire. We've already fully looted the place, though, so there's no reason to go back there.



To the west and southwest of Vishnu is... nothing, actually.




The northeast, on the other hand, holds the next destination in our war to retake Kirgard.



It's the Shiva Passage, and it's currently under Almenga control. We can head northward...



... but Daniel will spot some Almenga soldiers and automatically run away. So there's not much we can do here.



Instead, if we head off the road a little bit, we find...



... the magma caverns Sef alluded to earlier.

Music: Magma Caverns - Final Fantasy VIII, "Lunatic Pandora"



The Magma Caverns don't really have anything fancy going on. It's an extremely linear dungeon with no real side paths, so all we have to do is get to the end.



This being a lava dungeon, though, there's a whole host of fire-aligned enemies for us to deal with.




The Hobgoblin in the middle is the fastest enemy we'll find here, but it only has a physical attack and it's hilariously inaccurate. I'd say that over the course of this dungeon, only 20% of the strikes from Hobgoblins managed to hit, and the few that did only inflicted about 70 damage.




The Gargoyle in the back is also a straight physical attacker, but they're quite a bit more threatening, especially when two of them show up at the same time. They're fire-aligned, so Ayara can find herself KO'd almost immediately if two decide to attack her simultaneously.




Finally, we have the Lava Bones up front, who... are also straight physical attackers. While they're much more accurate than the Hobgoblin, they're still just about as dangerous, as they don't do much damage and have very little HP.





We continue along the path a bit...





... and we run into an Imp, who is quite a bit more dangeous than he first appears. He gives us our first glimpse of the elemental shield spells, in this case Lightshield. All elemental shields are signified by a square in the color of that element. Likewise, I don't think we've seen them in action yet, but elemental strikes are signified by colored circles.





But when they're not casting Lightshield, Imps are casting Dark Curse, which slams a column for major damage and has a high chance of poisoning anyone it hits. It's also one of the growing list of abilities which are quite capable of knocking out Klaus in a single strike.



That said, they don't have that much HP, so they can usually only get off one Dark Curse before they go down.




By the way, here's an example of Lightshield doing its thing. Elemental shields override elemental weaknesses, so even though the dark-aligned Imp would normally be weak to Daniel and Klaus's attacks, their damage is decreased by quite a bit. Without a Lightshield active, Klaus can hit an Imp for 217 damage, as you can see a few screenshots up. With a Lightshield in the way, Klaus will only do about 75.




Anyway, we continue on and find a save point, and follow a brief side path to find another menu set.



Menu Set #7 is the Chrono Set, which turns the menus into mimics of Chrono Cross's.




We also find a Satin Scarf near the save point, which grants +8 SPD. This goes to Ayara.





Finally, we come across the dungeon's requisite Single Powerful Enemy, in this case the Catoblepas.




Thankfully, there's no petrify status in Exit Fate, but the Catoblepas's Horrid Visage is still a nasty attack, dealing major damage to any character on the field and inflicting both Poison and Chaos. This is another attack that will one-shot Klaus if he's unlucky enough to be targeted.




The Catoblepas's regular attack is no slouch either, and if he's feeling particularly vindictive, he'll bust out a move called Stampede which does similar damage to everyone in the party. The only problem is, it comes out so quickly that I didn't catch a screenshot of it.



In any case, the Catoblepas is quite dangeous, but it's beatable.





The third and final treasure chest of the dungeon contains another Firestrike.






After that, it's not too much longer until we hit another save point...




... followed by this archway.

Music: None









Tell me, abhorrent one! What is thy name!?



Uh oh. If this game has taught me anything, it's that people without eyes are not to be fucked with.

He calls himself "Shin". I've already learned a lot from him.
... Is this the truth which mine eyes behold? Can thou be my most trusted comrade? No! Thy armor is black, as are thine eyes. How? Surely a foul trick is played upon my mind! Speak, wretched one! What hast thou done to him!?



Power!? What I can see before my very eyes is naught but a vile corruption that runs deep! Yes, thou hath corrupted him! This is a crime for which no punishment justice could be called!




I have no words! My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain than terms can give thee out!
You are mistaken.



Music: Redemption - Chrono Cross, "Prisoners Of Fate"



Is this true? Thou hast wished for this thyself? No words can describe the pain within my heart!
It was a foolish dream we had, Sef. There's no way people like us could've become knights. I can see it so clearly now. This power is something I could've never acquired on my own. How could I have said no? It's amazing, Sef. I can finally make all my wishes come true now. Everyone in the world will know my name!
No! My ears can hear thy words, but my heart refuseth to acknowledge them!





OPTIONAL BOSS: Soth

(no music change; Redemption continues playing)



Welp, we're not quite sure what's going on here, but it's probably not something good. It's time to beat the corruption out of this guy.




Soth has a number of decent attacks, Eclipse being one of them, but he's not all that threatening at the beginning of the fight. This will change soon, though.



Before that happens, we steal his helmet. The Blackened Helmet grants +9 PDF for 5 weight, making it the best helmet we can currently acquire that isn't the Circlet of Insanity.







It's important to get as many attacks in as you can in the early stages of the fight. The faster this battle ends, the better.




The reason for this is Soth's Channel Power ability, which he'll use every few turns. Channel Power is a buff, but it's not like any buff we'll ever have access to. Channel Power increases all of Soth's stats a fair bit, and unlike other buffs, it's permanent, and multiple castings will stack.








While it doesn't increase his damage a huge amount, Channel Power's effects are most apparent when we try to attack Soth physically. One casting raises his DEX enough that he'll dodge about half of our physical attacks. After two or three castings, he'll be nearly untouchable.



And that's why I brought the big guns.





Magic never misses, so it's the weapon of choice as this fight continues. Even characters who don't usually cast magic should be busting out your second-tier spells once Soth has used Channel Power a few times.




Soth has a couple of other attacks, including Dark Bolt...




... and a fairly powerful physical attack, but these are only problems if you let the fight drag on.



His HP isn't that high, so if you can take him out quickly, you'll never be in any danger.



Oh hey, another Diamond Dust. That's what, five of these things now?



His body is rejecting the transformation? Hmm, interesting.
Speaketh to me, Soth! Tell me thou hath not yet lost thy mind!
Sef... Get away from me. I... What have I done?
Thou who call'st himself Shin! Removeth this accursed darkness!



Please... leave me, Sef. I've done a terrible thing. I tried to kill you for my own selfish desires. I can't face you anymore.
No! Perhaps thou were blinded by this fiendish power, but I can see clearly now, thou art still the Soth I hath known all my life!

Music: None



Sef...
Fret not, my friend! We can be knights after all! This man is general of the Elysium army. Surely he will accept your services as he did mine!
Is that really true?














Wait hang on, what does tha--







Soth is... pretty much a carbon copy of Sef, actually. Their stats vary a bit (ignore the major STR difference, that's because of his weapon level), but in the long run they'll end up pretty much the same. But since Sef is rather mediocre, that doesn't give Soth a lot of promise. Unsurprisingly, Sef reciprocates the A-rank relation Soth has with him, but he also has an F-rank relation with Shin.





Even their attack animations are pretty much the same.



Shin, on the other hand, is a beast, comparable in a lot of ways to Bast. The two have roughly the same STR and SPD, and while Shin's natural PDF is a bit lacking, his MDF is through the roof, especially for a warrior. His major downside is that he's quite inaccurate, a problem Bast did not have. But he's still a pretty usable warrior, even though you may want to consider putting him in the middle row.





Shin has one bitchin' halberd, and he outdamages everyone in our current party.



Music: Faraday - Xenogears, "Singing of the Gentle Wind"

Anyway, we've pretty much exhausted all of the optional stuff to do for the time being. We'll finish up by coming full circle and checking back in on Darwin.




The experiment was a great success. With this, my work here should be finished. Oh, I guess I should thank you. Since you brought me the rainbow ore, you can keep the prism. If there's anything more I can do for you, let me know.







Oh, and in the event that you find any more rainbow ore, come see me. I'll be able to synthesize more spectral prisms.



Darwin is another pretty great mage, with very high MAG and MP+, and a decent SPD. Those are really the only stats that matter when it comes to mages, so you can't go wrong with him. Like Marian, his only real problem is that he's in the odd zone where he's very good, but not the absolute best, so it's rather easy to overlook him.





What Darwin failed to mention to us is that he's also apparently capable of levitation. Like Beau, he attacks with a bigass book.






Darwin's recruitment also nets us a Spectral Prism, the only source of non-elemental damage in the entire game. 512 damage is incredible at this point in time, but the Spectral Prism only has one use, and the only way to make more of them is to find more Rainbow Ores. Later in the game Rainbow Ores will be stealable, but not for quite some time, so this item is quite valuable. So before anyone starts hyperventilating at me wasting it, rest assured that I didn't save after doing this.





Now then, after a brief stop in Trarcia to upgrade everyone's weapons a bit more...



... it's finally time for us to get on with the plot. Jovian briefly mentioned last update that our next target would be the Shiva Passage, and it's time for us to come up with a plan for retaking it. So let's head to the meeting hall.

Music: Mission - Xenogears, "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong"



However, there is only one way to get to the north, and that's to go through the Shiva Passage.
For those who are not familiar with it, the Shiva Passage is a fortress built on the only major mountain pass leading from north to south. It was meant to protect the north from a possible Zelmony invasion, and it was designed to single-handedly stop an advancing army dead in its tracks. In fact, the fortress is so impenetrable that we were actually considering crossing the deep mountains rather than attack it. However, the passage must return to our hands, and Bast and I have developed a strategy that could work.



Why can't we attack directly?
It would be madness. They hold all the advantages. The pass is narrow enough to make any attacking army extremely vulnerable.
So, we're taking the sneaky route again, huh? I noticed you brought Harvey with you. Does that mean you want to use the same approach as with Vishnu Citadel? Surely they'll be expecting that now.



Also, we'll be doing things slightly different. Harvey?
Yes, let me explain. Even in the event that they do know how we brought down Vishnu Citadel, there's still no better way to get inside the Shiva Passage. Since the last battle, I've finished developing a special explosive that detonates only after a certain period of time. We can put this to good use here.



We will have to deploy multiple teams. I assume most of you are unaware of the unique defense of the passage, so I will tell you why this is necessary. Simply put, it's a security mechanism that controls all doors. Once they've detected intruders, they'll immediately activate the system. The key is that only one group of doors can be opened at any given time, and due to the layout of the building, it's impossible for a single team to reach its destination by itself.



Hmm, four teams? So we'll need to pick four people to lead these teams.
Harvey did a great job at Vishnu Citadel, so we'll have him lead one of them. His team will head to the storage room and destroy their supplies. This will incapacitate them in case the rest of our plan fails. Then, we'll need a second team to take out the commander of the fortress. I bet you'd like to take that job yourself, don't you?
You bet correctly. I'll take charge of the second team.
Finally, the two last teams will be heading towards the gate controls. One will open the front gates so we can enter easily. The other will block the back gates to prevent any reinforcements from hindering us. We haven't decided yet who will lead these two teams. The choice is yours, General Vinyard.



Are you sure about that, Jovian?
Hey, if Daniel's allowed to go, then why can't I?
It's fine with me. Jovian will lead team number three to open the front gates. Now, we just need someone for the last team...




It's your choice. If you have any doubts about it, I can pick someone else.
No, I'll do it! I was just surprised that you chose me, sir. I'd be happy to do it. I won't disappoint you!
All right, so the team leaders will be Harvey, Jovian, Ayara and me.
Daniel, before you leave, you'll also have to choose the rest of the team members for each of the four teams.
I'll think it through well.



All right, so you're probably seeing now where this is heading. Thanks to the Shiva Passage fortress operating on Video Game Logic(tm), we are going to have to deploy four six-man parties to capture it. Since they're by far our best-prepared characters, and we've got a pretty big selection as it is, I'm going to decree that our current party members will be coming along. But that leaves us eighteen open spots to fill. And that means it's voting time! Here's how things are going to work this time:

1) Please vote for up to eighteen characters not in our current party to join us in this attack. As with the Vishnu Citadel, Harvey is not guaranteed to be part of an active party and is thus eligible for voting. Once the votes are tallied, I will allocate our current characters and the top eighteen vote-getters among the parties as I see fit. While the Shiva Passage is designed so that even unprepared parties can complete it, I would still recommend that you vote for a good mix of warriors and mages. But as usual, you're free to disregard my advice if you feel like it.

2) You may also request that certain characters be placed in a party together. This part is not going to be an official vote, because there's no way to keep track of this kind of thing without it turning into a huge clusterfuck, but provided your request isn't too ridiculous, I'll try to fulfill as many of them as I can. Remember that Daniel, Jovian, and Ayara (as well as Harvey if he makes it in) must all be in different parties, so Team Kirgard Bros is not going to work out. But pretty much any combination not involving those four is doable.

Here is our current list of characters outside the party and the categories they fall under. I have also added a list of each character's relations to the character list in the second post, for the curious.

Warriors
Bast, Derek, Eander, Erin, Griever, Jasper, Keyser, Mike, Outsider, Petra, Rock, Shin, Shiro, Tong Wu

Mages
Beau, Darwin, Deus, Ljusalf, Mai, Marian, Midian, Myst, Naja, Orlando, Ryan, Yan Angwa

Thieves
Joe, Marcello, Rorschach

Other/Hybrid
Alex, Carson, Cid, Col, Deke, Fitch, Francesca, Harvey, Hawk, Johnny, King, Mandala, Meiko, Merrick, Nashal, Nikolai, Nomad, Paris, Richard, Royston, Sally, Sef, Soth, Stromgaard, Teej, Tiffany, Venkal, Wilona

Please bold your character votes. I'm going to leave the voting open for 48 hours.

Next time: We find out what created the surge of energy Clint told us about.