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.
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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.
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But if we follow Villa...
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Music: A Girl's Memories
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Villa storms out, never to return...
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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...
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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!
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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?
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Person: It's the treasure thief!!!
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Music: Looming Crisis
Person: H-He got away so fast, I couldn't get a good look.
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Person: Not a treasure...Just my son's toy. It's a glass marble.
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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.
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Music: Crack in the Earth
The right next has a shiny aura around it; it's about halfway down, near the houses.
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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.
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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.
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Music: Fun Shopping in Arcose
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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...
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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.
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~Mana Stones~
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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.
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Those three wander downstairs...
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Music: Beat of the Rumbling Earth
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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.
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Tee hee.
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flashback with hideous filter skipped for your convenience
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Music: Albion
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Groooooovecube.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Almost there...
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Lita seems to get hit with a lot of attacks directed at other people.
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Video: The Meanest Unicorn
Music: Horned Enigma
Meet Prism. He's our next boss, and he's about as nasty as the dragon was.
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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.
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...or else.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sadly, Prism still managed to get another one off. Klein somehow avoided the hit, which honestly is probably what made the fight for me.
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That's much better! I think I could be doing yet even better, but this will suffice for now.
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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.
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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.
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Klein pop a Mark of Weakness just before he gets killed...
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...and it was just what I needed to tip the battle in my favor. 400+ damage with a regular attack? Yes, please.
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I think that's enough for today. Join me next time for synthesis and Pendelook spending!