Part 12: Their Healers Outnumber Mine

Update 12: Their Healers Outnumber Mine



I recorded way too much footage in my last session and I want to split it into main plot and everything else, so this update will be a shortish one. Let's rescue Norn (or are we rescuing Beggur FROM Norn? Food for thought.)





Music: Waterdrop Waltz


First off, I took Plua (originally equipped on Norn) and moved her over to Arlin for now, just so he has someone. None of the Mana really benefit him fully right now, so he's still basically just getting whichever Mana works worst with the others.





Since we're going to the sewers anyway, let's check out a newly accessible area. Deimia can help us get over these indestructible blocks.





Ooh, I bet this is useful for some synthesis. I need to figure out some good recipes to stick some poison in.







Hmm, sounds like a status debuff. Unfortunately my only Spirit Mana and my only Dark Mana are the same Mana (Plua), and one Mana can't handle more than one element per recipe, so this is out of my reach for the moment.





Video: Beggur Boss Time

Music: The Name's Beggur!


What kind of psycho are you? How could you kidnap a little girl?

Shut up! I didn't kidnap her.

Oh yeah? Then what are you doing down here?

She's a cat, girl! Cats can't resist the smell of fish. She came more than willingly. Ha ha ha...impressed by my ample genius?

Very impressive, sir.

Your logic astounds me, Mr. B.

...I almost ate the fish, too.

BWA HA HA! It's not easy being brilliant.

What is it that you want?

Oh, that. It's simple, Klein. If you want the cat back, join us.

Not this again...

It's the only way, boy. So...what's it going to be?





Music: The Tower of No Return


Arlin?

Um, hello!? Didn't you hear what I said?







What the hell?


Whaaa!? What just happened?

Rumors of your brilliance were greatly exaggerated.

How DARE you mock me! Okay, team Alkavanaaaaaaaa...






RETREAT!





Meow! I knew you'd come, Klein! Meeoow~!


I love the Alkavana Knights. They're so silly. Also, it looks like we got Norn back before the boss fight. My bad. Oh well, let's keep Arlin in to test out his anti-boss potential.





We do actually need to follow Beggur, although I'm not really sure why since we achieved our objective of saving Norn. We weren't able to go this way before, but a black block has appeared that lets us jump over the raised bit (which is odd since we just got Deimia to help make that jump).





Bwa ha ha ha! You've got to be kidding me! That trap was so obvious! This is our base! You're nothing compared to Alkavana's full strength!

Okay, let's see what you've got!

SEIZE THEM!





Music: Bullfight


All right, this time we're up against Beggur and all of the second-string knights – Drei, Vier, and Neun, as well as Neun's pet pig, Tonta.





Beggur opens the fight by using an ability that knocks Arlin down. This basically makes him lose a turn, but it also makes him take more damage from attacks that hit him. Pretty obnoxious, but not really all that bad in the context of this fight.





I took a lot of advantage of Klein's Wide Item skill, which increases the area of effect of his alchemy, allowing me to bomb multiple enemies at once with Flame (and, of course, heal everyone with one Heal Jar).





Vier is probably the most dangerous of the lot. She can dish out a good 20-30 damage to everyone with Thunder God, and it inflicts Paralysis (attack down) as well.





One thing I remember about this game is that Tonta is a terrifying monster who will bring about the destruction of everything you hold dear out of pure spite. As such, I took great care to kill him as quickly as I could, so he only got one attack in and it was a weak one. I got lucky...THIS time.





Drei likes to spam heals. They're not terribly potent but sometimes he heals twice in a row, and he has lots of HP so killing him can be a bit tricky.





Neun is ALSO a healer. I don't think she ever attacks, she only defends, heals HP, or cures status. As you can see, she can heal most of her allies at once (although it looks like her heal misses Drei).





Personally, I love healers and support characters. If there's a white mage or analog thereof, you can bet they're in my party at all times they are available. Indeed, part of Klein's usefulness is in his healing and support capacity. I like making my team unkillable as opposed to super powerful, sometimes to my detriment – I guess I like taking advantage of the fact that I can heal and enemies either can't or generally don't.

My point is this is the sort of fight I'm not used to handling and I sort of screw it up.





Beggur himself hasn't changed much. He can hit a single character for mild damage, or charge up a strong attack to hit all characters for...also pretty mild damage, honestly.

Unfortunately for him, Arlin is standing back up and able to use his new skill, Double. This involves Arlin launching his foe into the air...





...and then smashing them back down. This is a fairly strong attack in itself, but it also seems to have a particularly high chance of Skill Break. I have Arlin alternate between contributing direct damage and interrupting Beggur.





I was also surprised to find that Beggur is susceptible to poison (via Arlin's attacks thanks to his poison weapon) but Neun cured that right up.





Anyway, the reason I say I screwed this fight up is that I insisted on getting rid of Vier first. I wanted to get rid of the main source of damage so the enemy could only really heal. This actually worked just because I could outdamage their healing, but in retrospect I should have changed my target order up.





And here's a picture of Arlin bisecting a little girl.







Jump Kick is really a more practical choice for Lita (similar damage most of the time, much much smaller MP cost) but I felt like being flashy.





Music: Albion


We'll beat you again if you don't leave us alone.

Grr...You'll pay for this!


Beggur and his cronies flee from the chapel.


Let's get outta here before reinforcements arrive.





Music: Sleeping Reality


I'll be fine. Rescuing Norn made me a little light-headed.

Which was awesome, by the way. How'd you do that?

Teleportation is one of my special abilities.


Wait, really? It's not every day a PC gets to teleport in story. That's usually a power reserved for villains and jerks. Then again, Arlin is a Mysterious, Brooding Swordsman, so I guess anything is game for him.


Wow! With skills like that, you must be unstoppable.



No...it tends to make me dizzy.

Well it looks really cool.


Uh huh. Well, now that Lita's done making Klein jealous, let's go home.





Music: Hot or Cool


Lineage of Iris and two mirrors...Dawn and Twilight...It's some kind of key.

Twilight...There's a deep gorge in the mountains to the north. It's called the Cleft of Nelvia. At sunset, it looks like a solid red wall.

You think that's “twilight”?

Well, that's the best idea we've had.

A hundred man army...

Yeah, there's no way the five of us are going to bust through the fortress.


They don't actually specify what they mean here; to get to this Cleft of Nelvia, we need to go through Fort Galga, that place I tried to go through earlier until bandits started shooting cannonballs at me.





Music: Popcorn Strategy


Suddenly, a non-Popo fairy enters. It's Pilke, the guy who asked us to visit the Puni God.


Hey dudes, I couldn't help overhearing. I think I may be able to help.

No offense, Pilke, but I doubt that one fairy is going to make much difference.

Oh, I've got friends. My syndicate can bust through the fort defenses, no problem!

You...syndicate?

Keep dreaming, little guy.

I'm serious, man. I ain't sleeping.

Wait...I lost track of the metaphor...

Don't worry about it. I'll get my boys together – just meet me at the fort, got it? I'll see you dudes later.





He may be the only shot we have.


Okay, it's your funeral...and mine...and Lita's...damn.


Sounds like we've got a lot of fighting coming up.

Join me next time as we don't do any of that and go sidequesting instead!