Part 65: Update LXII: An Adventurer and the Paradox Spiral

Woe be to any man who speaks of what happened at the end of last update. In any case, we're done with Sterk's, Mel's, and Marc's flags. Now it's time to tackle that big ol' tower. Yeah, you remember that, right? We fought Evil Face on the bottom floor, but it is a tower. Time to see what's further up.



Music: One Last Point

Our ascent begins. The tower is made up of five different areas, but you don't lose a day transitioning between them. You could presumably head up the tower in the space of a single day if you fight very quickly and avoid anything you don't have to do to get to the top.



I was too scared and nervous before, so I didn't pay attention. But...this really is a tower. I wonder if any stairs are around here.



After a whole bunch of stairs, you arrive at Evil Face's landing. Up here, we find...



The stairs are out? Well, that was a short trip, but there's got to be something we can do to restore the bridge.



Yep, just interact with the statues, which for some reason causes a couple platforms to rise out of the infinite darkness.



There we go! I wonder what's up there. Maybe even stronger monsters? Let's go take a look.



There's a lot of broken stairs, walkways without rails, and assorted monsters hanging around. However, you can find nearly every material in gathering spots around here, with the exception of Moonlight Flowers. They come in varying qualities, but your real reward is on the final floor, assuming you can make it that far.



Our first boss is an old favorite, our pal Fran Pfiel, come to exact his revenge. Will he succeed?



I was all ready to call the final boss of this tower the second hard boss in the game, but I think Fran has him beat.



Mainly because he hits like a mach truck. He hurts really, really bad, and most of his attacks are elemental, which means our armor doesn't shield us very well from it. As a plus, though, he only moves once in a row.



Part of the problem I had with this fight is because I came so poorly prepared. I was really flirting with danger this time.



I'm going to have to ask you not to do that again. Thanks.



I'm really going to request no more of those. Yikes. If I didn't shield Totori, I probably would have lost the fight after that move.



I mean, look at that, only two items that can recover allies from KO. Not wise preparation on my end. I drastically underestimated how much damage this guy does.



After those fire attacks, this is like a summer breeze.



Just had to open my big mouth. At least I got lucky with Guts again, as I almost certainly would have lost if I didn't have Mimi's super attack almost ready.



For unknown reasons, I opted to use a Meteor against him. If I had been smart, and used a Lightning Quartz, I probably would have finished the fight this turn. Thank goodness my incompetence didn't cost me more.



We got lucky more than once. Next time I won't be nearly so careless.



Time to see what's on the next floor.



Lookee here. Will the Iron Giant Proto prove to be worth his weight?



It's not looking good so far.



Well, what I think his gimmick is is that he has to reduce defense with Machine Charge in order for him to do any damage. Even with that in mind, Proto is very easy, and not nearly as hard as Fran was, even though he gets two turns in a row. Doesn't have much HP, and his group attacks are pathetically weak compared to his scaly fallen comrade.



Like our previous Iron Giant showdowns, he upgrades himself when drastically low on health. Unfortunately for him, Mimi's super attack is ready, and her attack power is also increased. He has two turns left.



Overall, it has not been a good game for mechanical enemies and posing any sort of challenge to me.



Hey look, some DLC equipment. Neat, but I won't be touching Cory's equipment the rest of the game.



In a chest to the left of Proto's husk, there's an average quality Wispstone. I got nothing.



Clearly, this place hasn't seen any maintenence workers for a few centuries. I do have to wonder why someone made all this, though.



On a landing further up, you run into the Raum Lizards. Pretty sure this is the only place in they appear, strangely enough. There's nothing special to them, but they do drop very low quality Dragon Scales upon death, usually.



Hopefully there's something a bit more challenging up ahead.



The next area is a massive vertical shaft, with a single stairway that circles around it. Along the way, there's an impressive variety of flora and fauna, including, but not limited to...



Arctic Penguins.



Queen Bees (who ended up constantly spamming Sonic Wave against me. Lot of good it did them).



T-Bomb Squirrels.



Valoshuns.



It is a pretty nice area, at least. Just keeps going up and up.



Griffonians.



And even Dragons. I wonder what's around here to support such a wide variety of life.



At the top, you do get a choice where to go. The staircase up, predicatably enough, leads to the final floor of the dungeon. To the left leads to...



A penguin with a headband? Oh, it's a Penguin Monk. I guess the Shaolin have really lowered their recruitment standards, but let's see what they've got.



So the Penguin Monks just end up pretty annoying. They go down fairly easily, they're vulnerable to debuffs, and they stick exclusively to physical attacks. There's not much to fear from them, especially if you have armor that shrugs off physical attacks.





At the very least, they were practicing hard for when someone stumbled across them. Too bad the person they eventually came across was me.



These guys are notorious braggarts, though. Just because you have some skills doesn't give you the right to show off.



These guys are getting boring. Let's see what the Spirit Stone does.



Oh hey. Good to see you're playing for the winning team this time.





Well, thanks for stopping by.



You guys are really boring. Let's see what they gave us, at least.



Oh hey. Ceci's best weapon. Now, up to the summit we go.



After a whole bunch of stairs, we come face to face with the master of the tower.



Know the Strength of the Heart - Rage Beast



So that devilish scream lets us know Rage Beast is playing for keeps, appropriately as the strongest behemoth enemy. Thing is, he's really not that tough, as long as you respond promptly to his meanest attack, which also happens to be the first thing he'll throw at you.



For such a hier tier enemy, though, I'm surprised he's vulnerable to Stun.



My first N/A use was unimpressive in terms of damage. That kind of pissant damage is not the reason I sunk the Ozean Kaiser.









This is the reason you want to have a whole lot of LP-restoring items. I prefer the Iksel Plate because it can easily have KO recovery abilities on it, which makes it ideal for this fight. Thing is, Tyrant Bash's damage isn't too bad, but it'll almost certainly Weaken anybody hit by it. If you don't have LP recovery ability, this guy is much tougher than he should be.

You could probably win a grindy showdown with him in this case, but he definitely has the upper hand in this scenario, especially if you don't have N/As. With these two advantages on-hand, though, he gave me much less trouble than I anticipated.



Most of his other attacks are simple physical, single target attack stuff. Nothing particularly impressive or menacing.



When he's starting to hurt a bit, he'll start to dig in with Stone Skin, which upps his defense and gives him HP regeneration. Otherwise, he won't be bringing much more to the table.



Here's another attack item I completely forget what it does. Let's see...









These games sure are in love with super flashy items, that may or may not do much of note, aren't they?



And Totori with a clean hit takes out the beast from hell. How far you've come, Totori.



Unremarkable rewards, but hey, we did it.



The view from the top is nice. Aside from Rage Beast, there's three gathering spots on the top flor that have 30 different materials each, all at S-rank. By this point, I can't imagine you'd need materials at all, but take them if you want them. I certainly have no plans on returning.



Now, I could use the Warp Gate to head back, or just take the stairs, but there's a way back to the second floor where Fran was from the top. It's this bridge.



Our shortcut puts us pretty high up on the second floor, but we're definitely back. Over on that platform, you have to give a pretty good jump to make it, but I succeeded.



Yawn. We're done here.



Back in town, let's start to work on the second half of the characters. Gino needs to be level 25 before his last event will trigger, so I brought him to my favorite grinding location in the game, Night's Domain, and just raised his level until he was 25. It was as exciting as it sounds, so let's just get the meat of it. Oh, before that...



This is the last location in the game. Not counting the Sea Dragon Pool where the Kaiser is hiding as a location, because it really isn't, this is the last one. This completes the Northern Ruins set, and that coffin in the back there is the final landmark. But let's just move on, to the final sequence of Gino events.



You're kind of in my way when you're relaxing around here.

Who cares? Not like you're busy.

I'm working right now! If you're bored, go train with Sterk.

Master went out two days ago and hasn't come back yet. Training alone isn't fun... Ugh...

That doesn't make it right for you to use my workshop as your lounge.



Me? I can't! There's no way I can!

C'mon, Totori. You've beaten monsters of the sea, beasts from hell, ghosts, dragons, demons, the whole nine yards. I think you can handle an...18 year old, I think is how old Gino would be now.

Come on! I'll go easy! Let's do it!

But I'm working right now...

If you don't, I'll stay here forever... Doing absolutely nothing...



Sure! All right! You're on!



Second part of this scene is voiced, first is not. Video goes until Totori says "How did it end up like this?"



*sigh* I didn't think it would come to this. Will you really go easy?

It's okay. Trust me.

I can't trust you just yet.







Okay, boss battle against Gino. The only thing you have to remember to do here is...



Oh, that easy? It's really, really, really hard to lose to Gino, bordering on impossible, I'd think. The game really wants you to win.



Huh...?

D-Did I win? Hahaha! I don't believe it! I beat Gino!

...

Oh, sorry. I shouldn't gloat, since you were going easy on me.



What? W-Why are you crying? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry! I'm sorry!

Shut up! Don't touch me!

Gino...?







I'm too late.

Sterk! What are you doing here?

I went to the village and hear you two were sparring. I had a bad feeling and ran as fast as I could. Now he must bear the same burden as me.

What do you mean? I don't understand any of this at all... I have to go after Gino!



But...

I'll take care of the rest. Though this may take some time...

*Sterk leaves*

Ugh... How did it end up like this?

So after this, Gino's events are on hold for a week, and you obviously can't hire him. All I did was take Ceci to the Ancient Monastery so she could level up and eventually get her super attack in time for whenever I decide to start recording skill compilation videos and whatever else extras I feel like. I'll probably post those in time for the final normal update.



Again, just skipping to the meat of things. Video goes until Gino says "Yeah!"



*fade to black*



*sniff* I hate this...

How long are you going to keep crying?

Shut up. You don't understand how I feel, Master.

I wish I didn't, but unfortunately, I do.

Really?



Ah, so Rorona defeating Sterk was canon. Nice to know. Still, I can't imagine the proper version of events was that she went on to beat Mask de G, especially since, even though he's no Gio, dude's got some crazy skills, and you'd think he would have mentioned that to Totori when she asked about the masked stranger.

What? You lost, too?



Damn. No wonder Sterk's still feeling a bit sore.

Hundreds? What kind of monster is that?

Don't ever tell anyone about this. It's a past I want to forget.

Okay. But didn't it depress you when you lost?

It did. And it led me astray for some time. All I can tell you is it will make you stronger in the end.

But I trained so hard and still lost...



But...

This is pretty serious... I don't like taking these measures, but let me teach you a technique.

What technique?

A super move, if you will. Learning this will make you drastically stronger.

Really? You'll teach me something that awesome?



I will! I definitely will! Please teach it to me!

Good. You're back to your usual self. In that case, let's begin.

Yeah!

So we have another week to wait. Instead of more adventurer level grinding, I returned instead to Arland and decided to make the...



Why the hell not? I have everything need, so I see no reason not to.



Hmph. I'll bet the last thing on Totori's mind is to turn this into a pie, but that's what separates baby alchemists from the pros. But what it did do is give me a hell of a lot of alchemy experience. I was already close to level 48 before this, but I completely skipped that level and headed right to 49. Next Elixir and I'll hit level 50. Beautiful.

And yeah, you get rank points for making this. But, that was a synth that took 10 days, so back to Alanya we go. Video goes until Sterk says "Whatever!"



Wah! T-Teacher! Why are you at this workshop?

I heard you weren't feeling very well. I got worried, so I wanted to visit and check up on you.

It's nothing, really...



It's not that! I just thought it'd offend Gino if I told you.

Come on, I was kidding! Anyway, let's go out together!

Right now?

Yup. When you're feeling down, taking a walk is the best remedy. Come on!



*fade to black*



Hehe. Somewhere special. Hmm, is this the right place?

Why are you asking me?

Whoops, sorry. Just talking to myself. Okay...



Saucer?! Wh-Where?!

Now! Pewwww!

*Rorona leaves*







*fade to black*



I'll move like this, then this!

Why can't you do it exactly as it's written on the memo?

But it's so complicated...

Good enough with the sword, but the mind falls short... We're running out of time...

Wahhhhhh!



What? Now? We'll have to wing it. Go and save her!

B-But I haven't...

You heard that scream, didn't you? You can execute the technique if you put your mind to it! Just go!

Y-Yeah!

*Gino leaves*

*sigh* I'm really bad at these things...









*flash to white*

Wahhh!



Gino?!

What is that huge thing? I don't know what it is, but I'll beat it down with Master's technique!



Before you even get a chance to attack in this pseudo-battle, Gino's super attack activates by itself. Gino's super attack is strange. One time when I was using Gino to fight Rage Beast, he seriously did more than 2000 damage with the final strike of it. I can only guess it was the RNG going nuts that time, since I've never seen an attack in this game do that much damage in one blow.













I did it... I did it! Did you see that, Totori?!

Y-Yeah. I don't know what happened, but it was really awesome! Were you practicing this whole time?

Y-Yeah. Something like that, but... Hey, did you trip and fall again?

B-Becuase... I was just surprised...

Oh, geez. Come on. Let's go back to the village.



Sure. Here.

Thanks, Gino.

No problem. Oh yeah, you only won the other day because of a fluke! If we fought another hundred times, I'd win every single match!

I-I know...



I know you asked me to do this, but I had to trick Totori and get a monster to attack her.

I'm sorry I made you do that.

Totori completely forgot about me, too. It's all your fault, Sterk.

How is that my fault?



Being a teacher can be hard. Especially if your pupil isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Are you saying I was an awful student?

No! I'm talking about mine!

Oh... Hehehe....

What now? Why are you grinning?

Nothing. I just thought Gino is really lucky to have a caring master like you.





Whatever!

Like Marc, Gino also gets his super attack as a regular move after that scene. Good for him. Let's check up on another character whose name starts with G.



Oh, it's you. Hmm? You smell like octopus. Did you catch the Guardian?!

Oh, no. Do I stink? I thought I scrubbed myself clean.

Answer me. Did you or did you not catch the Guardian?!



You caught it! Where is it?! I want to see it!

He's not listening... I only have a few slices. If you want to see that...

Slices? Hold on. You didn't bring the whole thing with you? Don't tell me you threw away the rest.

How can I carry something so giant? Bringing back these slices was hard enough already.

Hmm. I had hoped to take a look at it. Oh, well.



No. I'm about to.

Please hurry. If you have time to waste here, get moving.

What? But I don't even want to look at octopuses for a while...

What are you babbling about now? Freshness is vital whether it be with alcohol or the Guardian!

Ugh... Fine...

Joke's on you. I already made it. After handing it over, another scene. Video goes until Totori says "Never!"



It might sound weird coming from me, but I had no idea what I was making.

No, this liquor's great. I can tell just by looking. Not only that, it has the Guardian's title to go with it! I'm going to go around the village and tell everyone about it! This tavern will be full of people in no time!



Gerhard... I don't think you'll get customers with this...





Ceci! I want seconds over here.



No way...

Thank you. It's all thanks to you. Thank you so much!

Y-You're welcome. How did this happen?



If they can drink something made from a legend, they'll gladly come.

But what about the taste...?



Its slime clings to my throat. I didn't know the Guardian tasted like this.



Starting today, this tavern will change. Let's do this!

I'm skeptical, so let's check back up on him, after forcing me to lose a day...





Welco... Oh, it's you.

Gerhard, what happened to everyone?

I should ahve anticipated it. I sold out of the Guardian Liquor the same day. Then I get this.

Oh, I see. I didn't make that much to begin with...



Say, can you do me a favor? Go catch the Guardian again, and...

N-No! Never!

Some things never change, I guess. I did actually make a second Guardian Liquor one playthrough, just to see if there was a follow-up scene. There isn't. Anyway, since we're also right on the border of Rorona's ending flag, let's finish things up with her. For this game, anyway. Don't worry one bit about Rorona not showing up in Meruru.



And that's game. Rorona's final scene ahoy. And yeah, you have to reach level 50 in Atelier Rorona for this to show up. Or, if you don't, you just have to make something in Atelier Rorona after you're level 50.



What is it?

Your skill with alchemy isn't much different from my own anymore.

Huh? Really? That can't be possible...



Are you serious? W-Wow, that makes me so happy.

Well... Um... Congrats...

Thank you! This is so great. I'm just like Teacher now!

B-But! I'm still a bit better than you! Closing that gap is going to be really, really super hard!

I figured. I knew it wouldn't be easy.





Loyalty to the end

You won't call me "Rorona" all of a sudden? You won't get mad even if I still treat you like my student? And, and...

P-Please calm down. That won't happen!

Really?

Yes, really!



Th-Thank you...

I better work harder so you don't catch up to me!

Alrighty, so...that's that. Only Mimi is left, and that can wait until she actually gets to level 50. Between this update's end and the next's beginning, all I did was grind in Night's Domain. We're in a for a world of hurt next time...





Chivalrous Defender
Gino concept art
Rorona concept art
Rorona and Totori art
More Rorona and Totori art
Even more Rorona and Totori art
Kishida sure likes drawing these


One Last Point