Part 45: False Start

Update 45: False Start



Music: Popo's Pleasant Money Lecture

First of all, let's have some unlockables.













I'm not really sure why, but I adore oversized fungi. Especially ones that can be destroyed for Spirit Elements.





And from Lector's caravan, it's a quick hop over to Iris' Resting Place, and then...







Music: Drive Into the Dark


This place is strange, meow. I don't like it...

Even I can feel the energy in here. How are you holding up, Lita?

I'm great. I have the Ruby Prism, remember?

...Okay. Let's go down.







This being the final dungeon (well, part 1 of it), the game starts throwing some of the harder enemy groups at us. Fortunately, early on it's still mostly Puni (particularly Faux Puni and Giant Puni), which are still more cute than they are dangerous. Those little Master Puni wizards also pop up occasionally with them, and they're kind of a pain since they heal and other Puni will take hits for them, but Lita's attacks have enough range that I can generally just target something else and still kill the casters, too.





There's a three-way path down here. Progress is to the southwest, and the southeast path is basically a dead end (just a few Fire Element pieces to extract). The northeast path has good things, though.





Pattotte sells these things for an exorbitant amount of money, so it's ncie to get this one for free. This accessory gives solid stat boosts to ATK/MAG (+35) and all resistances (+25). I think it might also boost speed, but I was comparing it to the Speedster so it had a net loss. Sadly, this all comes at the cost of a hit to HP/MP (-35). I slapped this on Delsus instead of the Speedster; in retrospect, I'm not sure I'll keep it on him since he's starved for MP to begin with, but we'll see.





We can also engage Bunny Mode to sneak through this semi-secret passage...







...We can find some Growloons and some treasure chests, most of which contain rarer Mana Stones. I almost forgot Growloons are even a thing, I need to keep my eye out for these guys.





By using Flight to reach the “roof” of the secret passage, we can get a Super Ultra Rare Crimson Mana...





...and some more Flight shenanigans get us this Invisible Gear, which I believe is the only freebie – otherwise we'd have to farm these from lategame enemies. Fortunately, I should only ever need this one for 100% completion.





WHile Puni are the most common enemies around, there are still other creatures of note. Elda is invisible, but doesn't seem to have high evasion like other invisible enemies did (or maybe I just got crazy lucky the few times I fought them). They like to inflict Curse, which is annoying and all but not really a problem in fights that don't last long enough for it to matter.





...and their Charon buddies sometimes reflect magic damage, but Lita carves them up well enough without anyone else's help.







Now we're in the huge wet area. This spot just requires flying around a bit.





The Mull Beasts show up again here, and sadly even the Bio Frame can't save Klein from a mob of angry cats. At least he can take two Slams before falling now.





Fortunately, we're still at the point where enemies are more obnoxious than really dangerous. The feral cats are pretty much the worst of it, and as much as they ruin Klein they can't kill Lita before she kills them, especially with Supertank Marietta helping out with damage or heals.





You can kind of see the door leading further in here. I'm going to explore some more, though, there's still stuff to find in here.







That's quite a mouthful. Marietta is suspiciously unable to equip this weapon.





There's also this teleporter that probably takes us somewhere good. Let's try it out!

wait aren't the green ones the ones that-





...oh.

Well.

I guess we start the dungeon again, but I have an idea about something I can do with that Invisible Gear, so let's have a bit of synthesis and call it an update.





Atelier Blaire: The Rarest Candy

Music: Popcorn Strategy


Still haven't learned your lesson...? Okay, let's get this over with.

Fight...again?

You got here just in time, Klein! Villa's being mean to me again.

Mean? I was telling the truth.

That wasn't the truth! You're just trying to ruin my dream!

We can't settle anything if we don't know what the hell's going on.

I was merely pointing out the flaws in her plan to create a “Sweet House”.

Like...an entire house made of sweets!?

A yummy sweet house, meow!?

Watch their little faces just light up!





I agree!

Blaire rules, meow!

...I give up. Waste your time, I really don't care.


Villa leaves.


Heh...Thanks for your support, guys. I've dreamed about it for a long time. I'm going to give it my all.

She sure has gotten serious.

The recipe's on the list, so feel free to bring me ingredients.

Leave it to me, meow!

We won't let you down.





And Blaire's insatiable need for obscure candies once again stymies our progress. Amalgam Candy is the hardest to find, and once again is something we can only get from Norn's Turn 2 Candy spell. According to the GFAQs, there are a mere three enemies that can be turned into Amalgam Candy – the highest level dragon enemies (Flame Virums), Baals, and the postgame superboss. Of the three, only Flame Virums can even be encountered regularly outside of the postgame dungeon – they show up later in the final dungeon as well. We'll see if I can grab one when I try the final dungeon again.

...I just realized that the game translated dragon names as both Vilum and Virum. Huh.





Atelier Veola: The Unbomb

Music: Fun Shopping in Kavoc


Huh?

I added another formula. You should try gathering all the materials.

What? Y'know, most people would give actual items as gifts.

I see...So it's back to this, again. It was hard enough just deciphering the ingredients.

What are you showing appreciation for, anyway?

None of your business, Klein!

I'm sorry, Klein. But women are entitled to their secrets.

So you two are always fighting, but how you're keeping secrets?...Whatever.

Heh heh...





We'll get to that in a moment, but first, let's check out the final variant of the good ol' Craft. By using that Invisible Gear we just got, we can make a new item...







A weird type of what!?


Here's a Crupt.

Is this another craft? It doesn't look like much.

No, I said Crupt. You didn't bring me any bomb ingredients.

So...It doesn't explode?

I hope not! It's a pill. It actually increases your physical strength. It's the same size as a Nano Craft, so make sure you don't confuse them. I altered the color so you could tell them apart.

But...it's too small to actually distinguish the colors.





Apparently “increases your physical strength” means “boosts your Max HP by a lot”. I let Klein have this since I've spent most of this LP trying to make his durability not shit so why stop now?

(also, check out Norn's MP. 420, smoke Stained Grass every day.)





Ooh, I bet Lita's present is a new hat!







Life...pills?

Yes. They should activate the mana inside your body. Even if there's only trace amounts of mana left in your body, these pills will drastically increase it.

Veola, what...?

Take them if you're feeling weak. I guarantee you'll feel a lot better.

… …

You see, this time “feel a lot better” didn't imply dying in your sleep.

Er...duh! Heh. _{I knew that.} But, thank you. This means a lot to me.

Any time. Just remember to use it whenever your mana level is low.


Hey, that was pretty cool. As much fun as Lita and Veola's endless bickering is, I have to say I like they're friendship moments too.

By the way, this scene also shows how, as complicated and obscure as the requirements for new synth scenes can be, they don't always work out in the intended order. On my first playthrough I got the recipe for Farewell, Love pretty early, but it took me forever to get Norman to synth Powder so I could make any. So I actually wound up synthing this first, which kind of made the scene funny since Veola references something that hadn't happened yet.





The Life Pills themselves are useless to us now since I've advanced the plot far enough to get the Ruby Prism – otherwise they would restore Lita's MAX MP. Helpful to get a burst of extra MP for a boss or something, perhaps, if you can control it so Lita doesn't un-Murder Mode (if that's even possible to do mid-battle). Still, it's a cool idea and I kinda wish I'd gotten to make this earlier. Oh well, at least I can still desynth them for a ton of good elements.



And that's it for this update! See you all next time.