Part 25

Back on track...

Something is amiss.

Well, at least they aren't slipping knockout pills in your drink or anything.

Roufas gives up and offers Annie & Liza the job, but apparently Joker's going to be there, so Emelia wants in.

There's really just too many opportunities for Batman jokes in this quest.

Yup. We're here again. At least I won't have to chase a fucking mouse this time.

Because game developers get lonely at night. By the way, this suit supposedly boosts Emelia's magic.

Okay, I think Annie's hit on Emelia just a little too much.

More BlackX guys! They're just here for the slots, though.

She's being stealthy. In a bunny suit.

Pretty much every Baccarat quest involves running around until someone tells you to go in the elevator.

That's a lot of word bubbles.

For anyone who was interested, here's a shot of Emelia's pixelated butt.

He's...bartering? The fiend!

Plot developments? Eh, kinda.

Joker showers Emelia with gold, causing her to be surrounded by eager, tiny men. That sentence sounds worse than it is.

And that's it for this mission. Note that this is the decision point for Emelia's two endings: Chasing Joker further into the caves gives you a boss fight and the "Bad" ending.

Now that we have a couple of outfits, we can visit this fanboy in the Gradius base and select which one we want to wear.

This here's the first mission that actually requires, well, effort.

As I've said, Trinity's your standard evil type guys. And Yaruto's your standard evil type guy commander guy.

Emelia only goes for the high-class undercover jobs. Like luchadore wrestling and bunny girling.

Ah, Roufas is a Goon.

These revolutionary types are all the same...

And today, Emelia learns an important lesson about date rape.

You gotta keep an eye on your drink.

The interior of this ship is the same as the one that always gets eaten by Tanzer, by the way. Boy, that'd be a bitch of a place to wake up after being slipped a roofie.

FORESHADOWING

Geez, Annie. We all know you're in love with Emelia. Give it a rest.

Gradius is serious business.

Oooh, pretty.

It's Dancer Emelia! This one boosts swords, maybe.

And why is the dress so sticky?

Some nice men came to take us for a stroll.

Yaruto seems to be some sort of goblin thing. I dunno.

Joker likes to hit women during sex and also not during sex.

Emelia is sooo self-centered.

Roufas!

Joker likes the booty dance.

In addition to the monster absorbing and vampiric traits, mystics are also experts at yoga.

Trinity Base gets attacked. Is it Roufas? Let's find out! (no)

If he starts singing REM I'm going to punch him.

This is a silly screenshot.

As is everyone else, you moron.

Oh hay who is that

And we get tossed into a fight.

These enemies are tougher than what we can usually handle, especially since I forgot to get better weapons for Emelia. White Rose comes with a nifty "death" spell, though, so we make it.

Gradius always has trouble with the whole "escaping" part of undercover missions.

Yay, free party members. Also, the first time I saw White Rose I didn't realize that big poofy thing was a hat/wig/thing. I thought she just had a huge afro.

Emelia's the only character who can permanently recruit Asellus besides, well, Asellus. This is something to take advantage of.

Some loser needs help. But upon our victory we find that he was actually...

Akuma Zozma, a rather nifty mystic. Again, Emelia's the only one besides Asellus who gets access to this guy.

His stats are roughly twice ours (but then, I've purposely avoided leveling too much).

He's also the only playable character who gets to use Evil Magic. Not even Blue gets to touch this stuff (not that he'd need to).

This mini-boss of sorts can actually be avoided, and since he's stupidly strong, it's usually a good idea to do so. But hey, fuck that.

A little bit of this, and...

Victory! Zozma was nice enough to block a few hits with his face.

Yaruto's long gone, though.

I got lost here and ended up fighting another mini-boss, a powered up Living Armor. I've nearly gotten myself killed several times this mission.

Emelia gives up. Hey, at least we found some nifty mystic buddies!

That's it for this update.