The Let's Play Archive

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana

by Overrated Sage

Part 50: Three Little Pigs

Update 50: Three Little Pigs






Music: Ferocious Drive, version


I think I already discussed the basics of the “correct” strategy to fight these guys. Lita and Arlin spam Rock Smash and Bull's-Eye to deal huge damage while also temporarily making themselves untargetable while a third character is also there trying not to die. I understand that Klein being the third character is useful to pop a Divine Shield for extra survival chances.

You can also pop out the best Mana Crystals for this. I understand that there's a Mana Crystal effect that you can get out of the rarest Mana Stones that essentially makes all attacks hit twice (or deal double damage, if you prefer). Since Bull's-Eye already does like 1,300 damage (out of the pig's 12,000) to begin with, you can really ramp up your damage this way. Other boosts to attack and defense are also useful.






But doesn't that feel wrong to you? I mean, this has always been a game about making cool stuff.





And shopkeepers are the REAL heroes.





So I'm going to kill the bonus boss of this game using only items.

and passive skills because Arlin and Lita really are pretty much mandatory for this fight




Video: I'll Huff and I'll Puff and I'll Bomb Your House Down


I'm allowing the use of Klein's Mana Items if I need them, but for now I want to show off how effective some normal items can be in their place. Lita got a Fast Attack, which let me set up my first line of defense...





Remember last update when I went back to the land of Mana and found a ton of Star Prisms and Prismoons? Well, they're ingredients for Norman's Eidaltone recipe. The Eidaltone grants “Complete DEF” to all allies, much like Klein's Divine Shield.

Complete DEF essentially gives a 50% chance of straight up negating any attack thrown at them. It's all but necessary to make it through this fight.






It also can prevent Hyper Charge from knocking people over, which is perhaps even more important.





I also discovered in my previous attempts that the pigs are susceptible to poison. The Last Supper can hit all three, but it still only rarely works, and in retrospect I don't think it's worth the effort – the poison takes off a good 120 or so health per action for the pigs for a while (including Quick attacks), but the effect dwindles to nothing after a while.





Milk Bazookas are a bit of a pain to make since they require Hit Lists, but I was still able to get my hands on four.







~750 damage to all three of them? Not bad at all!





Oh yeah, I think I mentioned this earlier too, but Lita and Arlin have passive abilities that allow them to dodge/block attacks, giving them additional chances to just not be affected by the pigs' attacks. I really can't stress how useful Arlin and Lita are for this fight.





I really should have made more Micro Crafts – they're really not that difficult, you just need some smaller gears. Anyway, Micro Craft only hits one target, but since two pigs are burrowed right now I might as well unload on the one still out with these.





HELL YES

And I got to have each of my characters do that, so that one pig is now down like 4500-5000 health.






The pigs continue they're relentless assault, but for now things are still well under control.





Extra Craft require Cueparts, so I can't really make any more of these. Let's hope the one I have on hand is effective!





Nice.







Sadly, the pigs ganged up on Lita enough that even Dodge and Complete DEF didn't manage to save her. I have several Nectars on hand to resurrect, but...well, resurrection doesn't really work out too well in this fight because the pigs just murder that character again before anyone gets to do anything. I tried it once and Lita just died again, so that's out.





Next up is Delsus. Delsus' Feint Shot can be useful in this fight as well – sometimes he prevents the pigs from attacking in the first place (and also deals damage but it's trivial). He doesn't seem to activate this as often, but it's still cool when it happens.





And now for the ultimate glope...





I couldn't get a picture that showed all the numbers at once, but this hits three times and the combined hits do about 2,000 damage.

I kind of wish I'd synthed a couple more of these for this fight – I didn't realize how ludicrously strong the Felios Globe is.








The plain ol' Globe is pretty good, too. I didn't expect it to have an area of effect, but it did.





And, uh...that's about where I started to run out of good attack items. I mean, I still have weaker Craft and a couple other oddball items, but I'm not quite sure I have enough to get through the rest of the pig's HP, at least not before they overrun me.







Oh, did you know that Blaire's trademark candy is a Megalixir? Because that's kind of great. The Golden Sugar requirement to make more is kind of a pain, but I'd say that's worth it.





Anyway, this is where I finally dragged Klein out to bust out some Mana Items. I wanted to see what the Laruba Key did, so I tried that out...





(it didn't do anything)





Fuck it, I'm just going to torch them with a dragon instead.





A couple of those later, and the last pig finally fell. And with that, we have achieved sweet, delicious, 100% compl-





...uh.


There used to be a legend about a golden pig...

Is that supposed to be a joke? It's not very funny.

There used to be a skilled burglar who only stole things in the pitch dark. So a man set a trap to catch the burglar.

Hmm...meow.

According to the only witness...the burglar turned out to be a golden pig.

Unbelievable, meow!

What kind of stupid legend is that?

Don't you get it? The golden pig stole all kinds of things! Supposedly, if you follow the pig, you'll find great treasures.

I don't see any treasure.

Did you forget about the item you just picked up?

...That's a treasure?

Well, he's probably hiding other stuff. We should come look around sometime.








...I don't really know how to react to this. I beat the post game superboss and got underwear? I guess this at least cements my assertion that this is a game where the shopkeepers are more important than the actual protagonists.

It looks like we're just about finished up! Join me next time for the final odds and ends of the game. See you next time!



























Huh?

Ohhhhh no! That's my underwear!

Heh, really? These are yours, huh?

Noo! Stop it! Don't look!

Just kidding...We were bringing these back to you.

Noooo! You saw the pink one!

It's no use. We'll have to come back later.


...I can't make this up, folks.