Part 7: Cutscene Powers Activate

For some reason, examining the mushroom reveals that Theo actually knows the scientific name for it. That's very odd considering his general lack of a clue on anything else. Naturally we grab it for future use.



Somehow the Treant has become a Trent tree in the last 5 years. I guess maybe they decided to give it a name?



Perhaps remembering the last time we kicked his ass, he makes with the goods immediately rather than making us fight again. Instead of 1 we get 3, however, and that might come in handy.



Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we...



Holy shit a bear! Leaving now..



Heading a different direction from the mushroom landmark we stumble onto a sign pointing the way to Rod's Village.




Before we can go much further, we're waylaid by someone's grandma who's also looking for Winder Castle. Someone forgot to lock the door and she wandered out into the woods.



Trees in this area aren't exactly safe to hit, although they are hilarious.




Some of the trees have empty hives, so we're actually pretty lucky to get honey right off the bat. Otherwise it's just stinging and 2 points of damage.



The village is kind of rustic in nature, but it's got all the amenities. The weird thing is that there's evidently more than one shaman in the world..



Although naturally this shaman is identical to the other one. I'd find it very interesting if a game actually had a central concept that all services and such were provided by the same person and the storefronts were just portals back to a central location.



There are a few new enemies here, and they start to amp up the difficulty by giving them things like elemental resistances. Hitting a hibagon with ice magic is an exercise in futility, while Kobolds have magic of their own.



The new enemies can also hit like a ton of bricks. We can beat them at this point, but it's not pretty.



It's a bit mangled, but the one non-shop building in this town belongs to the local woodcutter..



Bozo the Woodcutter, than is. I wouldn't say to his face, though, considering that he's apparently wide enough to have to go through his door sideways and kills trees for a living.

But recently, a poisonous fog has shrouded the woods. I can no longer make my living!



The good news is that there's also a weapon and armor shop. The game actually has a few other weapon classes than swords, although the only apparent difference is in attack power. As a note, the Sword of Comfort is a cruel joke that appears to do nothing.




A few new purchases later and Theo breaks triple digits on attack while Mute sees a big uptick on defense. It's really not worth it to give Mute a weapon upgrade since his weapon is never really used.



In addition to new creatures, the forest is also home to carnivorous plants.




They like to use paralysis attacks, allowing us to test one of our mystery spells out. It turns out that Motion acts as a cure for paralysis. Before we can much further, though...



Castle Winder lies somewhere in these woods...

Granny's off her meds and fixated on Winder Castle.



I haven't found it yet. But I've been looking.

The really amazing thing is that she hasn't been eaten by a plant yet. Although she is pretty with it considering that she recognizes us each time.



Heading northward far enough results in us stumbling into the fog the woodcutter told us about. Curiously enough for a life draining mist, it actually drains MP instead of HP.



We get an object lesson in paralyzation along the way. Rather than stopping you from acting, paralysis and petrification actually cause damage every time you take an action. Higher level spells and effects seem to result in more damage.



The enemies in here are still tough enough to kill some of our characters without causing a wipe..



This does give me a chance to test out the Water of Life, and find out that it does exactly what I though it does. Then I kicked myself in the ass for using my one revival item in a test. Still, it'd have been awkward to be relying on that effect and have it turn out to not actually work.



Mute picks up a full screen ice spell along the way, while somewhere in there Theo picks up an ability to steal MP. That would be a REALLY useful spell for Mute but that's not to be the case.



... well, this is bad news.



That only gets worse. Death count: 3 TPK, 1 miscellaneous.



Coming back into the forest, the bear.. evidently talks and wants some honey.

Please give me some honey ... I'll give you this fishing pole if you do.



Left unsaid is that if we don't, he'll take the honey over our dead bodies. Or something... it says a lot about this game that a talking bear with a fishing pole doesn't seem particularly unusual. Naturally Theo decides to ignore all good sense and feed the bear.



Hmmm. Got to have that honey!!

He'll be regretting this when he wants fish later.



Or maybe not. This is a very moment somehow.




Nearby there's a nice sheltered pond.. why Theo taking a bath gives everyone an MP boost is probably a question best left unexplored.



While we're here, we can pick up a fish using our new fishing pole. I don't know when or how this will be used, but fully I expect to be carting its growing putrescence around until I find someone who wants a fish.




With no other leads, we take to wandering the fog-shrouded forest in hopes of finding an exit somewhere, possibly by being more hard core than Bozo the Woodcutter. Eventually, however, we get a creepy location and a staged fight.



You puny creatures don't stand a chance!

I have a feeling it would be far more terrifying if it weren't in grayscale and thus somewhat hard to see against the background.



At first glance it doesn't seem notably tougher than some of the monsters we've dealt with, but when I said this was a staged fight I meant it. The game doesn't even let you input commands.




Instead, we get told the enemy is too strong for us and get an introduction to a new character.



Although he looks like he belongs in Mad Max, Bogi can make an entrance.







My dream is to find and defeat a Fire Dragon, but I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. May I travel with you for awhile?

HELL yes. I love the fact that he doesn't explain why he wants to kill a Fire Dragon, just that he wants to. And the fact that he's apparently just gotten lost trying to find one is hilarious.



Unfortunately, his special plot required powers fade as soon as he joins us. Now he's doing damage somewhere between Mute and Theo, although part of that is just his equipment.



The Creeper was the source of all that was wrong with the forest, and things are going back to normal. We should probably find that Woodcutter at this point..



On the way back, Theo and Mute both pick up a wide area magic blocking spell. It could be useful in the future.




It's at this point that I realized I'm a dumbass and that there were actually two screens of equipment at the shop including some much better armor and weapons that I could have bought. Theo goes triple digit in both combat stats, while Mute becomes more tank-like by the second.



Bogi is a physical attacker with no ability to use magic, but unlike Nina he's actually GOOD at it. His offense isn't far behind Theo's, and he's actually faster than Theo to boot.



And I found the path to Castle Winder. Legend says that King Winder destroyed a terrible demon.

Naturally the woodcutter was integral to advancing the plot. You think I'd just go back to him for the fun of it?



A bit more forest wandering and... there we are. I've got a feeling that this is it. Interestingly enough, looking around the area shows that there's a fog that feeds on life energy even though this is clearly not the case. I think someone forgot to code an event flag in this room.



At long last, Winder Castle. Next time: Killer swords, helpful ghosts, and a far more badass king than Riccar is currently boasting, even if he is dead.