Part 22: Prism

Update 22: Prism






Music: Town Where the Bells Chime


I really can't stress how easy it is to just walk into side quests and scenes while trying to complete the main plot. Which is totally fine because I like most of the side stuff, but it makes it easy to forget what you're doing and where you're going sometimes.


Various treasure all over town have been stolen. Is a ghost playing tricks on us somehow? The thief's only stealing valuable treasures, and no clues have been found. What's this burglar plotting? Stay tuned for any updates!

A treasure thief? Should we track him down?

We're in the monster racket. Let's stick to one thing at a time.

But...it's like a mystery. Don't you want to solve it?

Nope. I sure don't.





I thought maybe the sewers would be a good place to look, but then when I checked Popo's hint guide he said that we're supposed to visit Arcose, except I'm pretty sure nobody said anything about Arcose. I started off that way, but wound up stumbling into another mini event.





What are you doing here in Kavoc, Villa?

Oh, well I heard the bandits were defeated, so I figured I'd see this place for myself.

That's cool...What do you think of Kavoc? Pretty big, huh?

It's big alright...but are there any...adult men around here?

Adult, meow?

You know, a true gentleman with refined tastes and maturity. My dream man!

It'd be hard to find a guy like that anywhere.

Really? That's a shame. I was hoping to meet a man...





We're just hanging around. What about you, Hagel? Are you off to the bar, already? It's barely noon!

Don't be silly. I have something to tell Norman, that's all. I can't leave my shop for very long, so I gotta get going. See you!



Who...was that?

That's just Hagel. He owns the weapon shop.

Hagel...he seems...niiice...

Villa? Are you okay?

Is everything alright, meow?

I'm fine! If you can't tell how fine that man was, you're the ones with the problem! He's all grown up, with his huge muscles...smooth, shiny head...he's perfect! I have to tell him how I feel!

Whoa, hold on!

Figures...a perfectly handsome man is right here in front of them, and they go chasing after some weirdo...

This coming from a guy with a goatee, meow...

...Chicks love my goatee!


But if we follow Villa...







Music: A Girl's Memories


Why didn't you tell me you were into that!? You lied to me!


Villa storms out, never to return...


Hagel...

That's just wrong!

Lita...

You should have told us the truth! Why would you hide this from us?

Don't be so -

...You're right. All of you are right!





See? Was that so hard?

...How embarrassing.


The synthesizing shopkeepers might be the most notable, but I like how even some of the others get their moments to shine. Speaking of which...





Oscar has moved into Hagel's shop. I'm not really sure what makes him pop up wherever he does, but I'm pretty sure he can always be found in one of the main towns. Sadly, I'm still not up to date on ingredients for his stuff. Like I said, I'll try to work on synthing in the next update, I think I've been neglecting Norman and Blaire a little.

Now, to Arcose!





Woman: Oh, my! Was anything taken?

Lady: Yes...Some precious treasures...but that's all.

Woman: I'm sorry...Why would anything do such a thing?


Looks like the thief is the talk of the town.

Yeah, it's a big problem...Maybe too big.





Famous...!? That isn't very funny! You know, it's a serious problem!

Did he get you, too, Villa?

Sadly, yes...He stole a valuable ring. Hey, can you guys catch him?

I wish we could, but it sounds like we don't have any clues...

*sigh* I wish he hadn't taken that ring.


Person: It's the treasure thief!!!





Music: Looming Crisis


Person: H-He got away so fast, I couldn't get a good look.

So he just stole one of your treasures?

Person: Not a treasure...Just my son's toy. It's a glass marble.

A marble? What's a thief going to do with that?

Could be a bird...

...A bird?

Sometimes birds collect shiny things. Most treasure is shiny, right? Why don't we check local bird nests?


That's...an idea, I guess. I don't know any bird nests near here, but I do know where there are some, um, at all. Let's check out the Cleft of Nelvia.







Music: Crack in the Earth


The right next has a shiny aura around it; it's about halfway down, near the houses.


Meow...sparkly!

So this nest must belong to the treasure thief.

Let's take everything back to the people or Arcose.


We get a few Mana Stones (those are kind of the generic sidequest reward, aren't they?) and “Arcose Metal”, which I assume is the key item of the quest.







There's also a pretty one-sided fight against the bird. Remember way back at the beginning of the game when we fought one of these? It's weird that they're still around.


I'm sorry, these don't belong to you. We're going to take them back to their owners.





How do we know who owns each item?

Um, well we...Er...we don't. Eheh heh...

I think we should take it all to the grocery store. The clerk should know who goes with what.

That's a good idea. Villa's probably willing to help out.





Music: Fun Shopping in Arcose


Would you mind giving the rest of these back to their owners?

Oh, of course. No problem...There it is! My ring!

That's yours?

It's cracked in half, meow!

Oh, don't worry. Hute has the other half. Oh, I almost forgot! Here's your reward.


She hands over a Shifty Eye. Eyes are rarish ingredients. The antique store in Arcose sells both kinds (I think the other kind is the Cat Eye) but they go for like 2-3k gold so this is a pretty good reward for a not very hard quest, on top of the Mana Stones from earlier.


Anyway, I talked to Villa again because I wanted to buy some stuff, and...





Is something wrong?

Well, I could use some help, actually. You have a little time, right?

What's going on?

The merchant who I usually buy form was injured on the road. Now I'm running low on products...Soon I'll be completely out of stock.

What can we do to help?

I wanted to go pick up the order...but I can't really leave the store.

No problem, I never ignore a damsel in distress...It's policy.

Delsus, please stop saying that.

Thank you so much! All you have to do is pick up the order form Kavoc. Just tell them it's for the Arcose market. They'll know what to give you. Oh, I totally owe you one.


Geez, Villa really wants to be an active part of this update. I think it's funny how she talks about how she can't leave her store when we've already seen her in Kavoc this very update.





Okay. What happened to the regular merchant?

He was injured, so we're doing Villa a favor.

I hope he's okay! (...he was cute)...This should be Villa's order. It's already paid for, so you just need to take it to her. This was sweet of you guys. Till Villa I said hi.





it wasn't really a big deal.

It is a big deal. In order to run a successful market, you need quantity and reliability. How would you feel if you went to a store that had different products every time?

I guess you're right. I never really thought about that...

What? Did you think magical gnomes kept the shelves stocked?

Well...I...Aww, isn't Norn cute?..._heh...

Um...ohh-kay. Anyway, this is for you guys. Thanks again.


~Mana Stones~


But these are -

Yeah, isn't this a grocery store?

Oh, those? Hute gave me those. Bit I figured you'd get more use out of them.


All right, I think that's enough dicking around for today. Let's get on with the main plot. First, we have to go back home.





I'm pretty hungry, too.

Wouldn't you know it. The girls are only nice when they want something form me.


Those three wander downstairs...


Come with me, Klein.





Music: Beat of the Rumbling Earth


En garde...

Hey! What the heck are you doing?

I'm testing your strength.

...Okay. Let's go.





Okay. Unlike the previous battle with him, this fight can be won. Arlin actually has his normal battle parameters (which is to say he has really high everything except magic resistances), so he's as strong or weak as he would be in your party. Honestly, he could probably just one-shot Klein still. However, Klein has some speed boosting equipment, and that let him go first. He also has Power Item, which lets him use a Mana Item at greater potency.







Tee hee.





Well I'm not gonna stop here.





I did no such thing.

Arlin...





That's the ruin Rurona was looking for, right?


flashback with hideous filter skipped for your convenience


East, huh?

Sounds like it's in Arcose.

Then I guess we're headed to Arcose.





I tried my hand at a little more smithing, and I got a decent little setup for Lita. I'm not actually sure if the +MP really matters considering how Lita works (it didn't improve her current max MP, anyway) but the life and speed are both useful.

Now, to Arcose.





I just got back from the Flawless Marvel...It was just too much for me. I had to turn around and come back.

That rough, huh?

I can't believe this happened to me. I guess everyone has their limit.

Can you tell us how to get there? It's actually pretty important.

Are you serious? That place is packed with monsters?


Regardless, she opens up the path to the Flawless Marvel for us, so we can now travel there. However, we can also talk to her again for a little more info about something else.





Really? What'd you hear?

It seems the gem was created from a piece of a dragon that was sealed away. With the gem, we can revive the dragon through the power of alchemy!

That's interesting news...

I'm glad you think so, too! I'm gonna try to find out more...





When we met Rurona leaving for the ruins, she said they were east. Naturally, this means the Flawless Marvel is actually in the far northwest corner of the map, near Ka Luda's Playground.







Music: Albion


The ruin is one giant treasure.

We need to find the Primal Gem.

This is just a guess, but since it's a treasure, it's probably locked away in the innermost room.





It's actually sort of funny Delsus should phrase it that way, since this is actually one huge room. There are Growloons to be killed, as usual, and some important treasures to be found.





There aren't too many new enemies – most of them are recycled from Ka Luda's Playground. The silver wolves are fast, powerful jerks who can tear through Klein and Norn pretty quickly if you let them, but thankfully don't have a whole lot in the way of defenses.





This dungeon is the game's resident teleporter maze, but it's not such a terrible one. The path is relatively linear, and there's one point where you have two options but they both ultimately lead to the same place. I think there are only two or three real dead ends, and they're worth exploring anyway.





Oh yeah, this happened. I need to start using this ability again. I think I'm pretty well stocked on candy right now, but it never hurts to have more.







Figures I'd get a good mana crystal on Lita's weapon only to find a replacement that's better. Oh well, I'll take it anyway. That +avoid looks pretty neat.





Groooooovecube.





Eventually we reach a large pillar in the back. We can start climbing up, but first, let's check out this very important teleporter over here...







Aha, you're good. I'm surprised you found me.





You're an alchemist, are you not? Did you come seeking my help?

Yes, of course.

I'm a Mana of life. It actually pains me not to help those in need. I believe I can be of great benefit to your cause. Let me know when you're wounded, and I'll use my power to heal you.



























Music: Popo's Pleasant Money Lecture


Man, how long has it been since we had one of these? I've missed Popo's Fourth Wall Lectures.


Today we're going to talk about the Life skill. This lets you heal your party's wounds at any time.

Maybe I should handle this.

In order to use Life, you need to summon Aion.

Simply set the action dial to the heart icon and press the square button. I can heal any wound.

Wow, that's fantastic! Anything else you want to say?

Life is a useful skill...but if you overuse it, there is nobody to restore MY life. Do not wear me out.

Well, that's it for today. Bye, everyone!
































Aion can handle Life and Fire elements. Sadly, this still doesn't leave me with any Mana who can use Holy, so no elixirs for me. She can help me make Newlife resurrection items, though, so that's pretty cool. As for gifts, she likes a lot of food items. Blaire's bakes goods seem to make good presents for her, so I filled her up on bread.





She also seems to offer curiously high skill point boosts. I paired her up with Delsus since those are probably the two skills I use most with him at the moment. Note that she also offers a large HP boost AND Hp regen, very nice.





Almost there...





It certainly looks like treasure, meow.

...I guess it has to be.

Well, it's too big to carry around...What are we supposed to do now?

I could try elemental extraction...

Klein, wait. Something is amiss.







Lita seems to get hit with a lot of attacks directed at other people.


Are you okay, Lita!?

I'm fine...Let's take care of this guy.







Video: The Meanest Unicorn

Music: Horned Enigma


Meet Prism. He's our next boss, and he's about as nasty as the dragon was.





Prism's signature attack is Shutrel Edge. The good news is it can be canceled, and I managed to interrupt it a few times in this fight. You really, really want to cancel this attack.





...or else.





I kind of botched my buffing in this fight. I popped one early on, but then I didn't really keep up with it as my party started cycling around. I'm not sure I ever managed to stack Mark of Courage and Berserker – that could have been lots of fun.





Curiously, Prism is susceptible to some negative status effects, except it just instantly cures itself of them. I saw a status effect stick for one or two actions once, but I think even then it got removed before it had any negative effect on the boss.







Prism also has an ability called Spark which has a delayed effect. He uses it, then a few turns pass and the actual attack lands. It's not all that powerful, dealing around 50 damage to everyone, but since it can stack itself on another of his attacks before you can heal it's still dangerous.





The good news is that Prism's defense is actually kinda low. The bad news is he has loads and loads of HP to make up for the deficit, so the fight still takes a while.





Arlin is still the resident anti-boss specialist. Double is great for knocking Prism out of Shutrel Edge, and just for dealing damage in general.





Sadly, Prism still managed to get another one off. Klein somehow avoided the hit, which honestly is probably what made the fight for me.









That's much better! I think I could be doing yet even better, but this will suffice for now.





Prism also has a gimped version of Shutrel Horn that he can use instantly. It's much weaker and single target, so it's basically just his physical attack.







And he can heal himself for 600-700 HP a pop, because he's not already annoying enough. The good news is that I can actually keep up with that damage, and every turn he heals is one he's not dealing damage.





Klein pop a Mark of Weakness just before he gets killed...





...and it was just what I needed to tip the battle in my favor. 400+ damage with a regular attack? Yes, please.













I think that's enough for today. Join me next time for synthesis and Pendelook spending!