Part 101: Last debrief and final notes

Well uh, it’s done! I get that the Last Chapter really dragged out, but that’s a result of my own decisions to bump everyone’s character arc resolutions until now. And then I began the S Rank exam (and synthesizing the Pastels of Unity).

Speaking of S Rank, here are the ambitions!


Linking Chain is a Battle Mix you unlock from the questboard. You’ll need to make an Elixir of Laawe with HP Recovery M and the component Supreme Article to get the Battle Mix recipe. To do that, you’ll need to use a Wicked Bone as a catalyst to hit these effect thresholds. Otherwise you’ll do a bit too well with the HP Recovery threshold in order to finish the quest.




Death Knight Addis is a boss you fight for a quest, while you can fight the Uber Dragon as part of Sophie’s event sequence.



Anyway, we got character arc resolutions and endings! And a few spoilers from the previous games. But with that, here they are in the order they appeared:

CGs

Two-Faced King[url]
[url=https://lpix.org/3531342/500_years_ago.png]What Happened 500 Years Ago
Luard 1
Luard 2
Heavenly Comfort
Their Dreams
Just as Tasty
On Vacation!
Synthesis (Both)
No Matter How Busy (Normal Ending)
To be the Greatest in the World! (Good Ending)
Busy Again Today (Rich Ending)
Bunny Parade! (Mysterious Painter Ending)
One Era (True Ending)

1.03 Scenes
Lydie’s “Mysterious Painting”
Shouting into the Void

Other Bonuses
Fuoco’s Fire Dragon
I couldn’t make the time to transcribe this, but you can fight Fuoco and her Fire Dragon repeatedly in the Last Chapter.
Another Alt
The above scene is one you don’t need to see to get the True Ending (and heck, it’s mildly spoilery for both of the last two games too), so I didn’t transcribe it.

Combination Arts
Full-Power Gunplay (Sue/Mathias)
Sanctuaire of Demise (Lydie/Alt)
Einzelkampf (Alt/Mathias)
Four Pillars of Heaven Judgment (Alt/Ilmeria)
The music is basically Ilmeria’s theme, but much tense. (Also behold, the one time Ilmeria and Alt interact face to face in the entire game)

Location Notes and Memos

This is a completely red world from a painting found in the mountains. I feel an overpowering feeling whenever I’m here… It’s like a powerful presence I can’t place…

Bestiary Notes

Termina for round one is really easy since she has absolutely no magic or elemental resistances to speak of; all you really have to do is use the Star Sprinkler to double Firis’ skill damage output and let her go to down.


Now in her true form, she’s a bit tougher since she has marginal elemental resistances and more HP to soak through; proper setup (e.g., stalling her with a Lightning Crystal, AOE buffing medicines and debuffing her defenses and using the Star Sprinkler) can still let you smash right through her though, and she’s just as vulnerable to Firis’ Corundum Nova as ever. I tried to use Alt’s follow-up chain, which fell short; I probably needed to use Oath of Glass to massively buff his Equipment Effect and skill damage output in order to pull it off, but I was literally out of turns before she finally attacked.


Now Palmyra takes a bit more effort to defeat on the first go, since she has elemental resistances and a moderate magic resistance; these can still be (relatively) neutralized with a N/A, though, but it’s still possible for her to survive five follow-ups from Firis.

Now if you’re going at Palmyra at level 90 with all eight of Firis’ follow-ups in tow, then it’s no contest.


Palmyra in her true form is much tougher (and heck, I had to bump the difficulty down from VH because I didn’t remember just how hard she’d be); you really need to be on point with your equipment and bomb crafting and your action economy to beat her.


Fuoco’s Fire Dragon is pretty easy to beat if you just use any of the usual boss-killing strategies you’ve honed by the Last Chapter (Star Sprinkler, N/A, Firis bombing, etc etc)


Probably fitting Alt’s own in-game commentary about how Luard was weak, this incarnation of Luard is pretty easy to take out before he even gets to attack. He’s got sizeable magic and elemental resistances (so Firis and, ironically, Alt himself will be relatively ineffective unless you use the N/A), though Sue and Mathias also have good physical damage options to beat him up hard and fast.


Remember the Avenger from Chapter 10? Well Death Knight Addis is basically that but a bit stronger and bulkier, but this time he has no lightning resistance, so he’s that much more vulnerable to getting Lightning Crystal’d to death.


Now the Uber Dragon is pretty tough since it’s much more resilient than its HP and Defense stats let on; even with the Star Sprinkler and a N/A, Firis’ follow-up chain did just enough to take it out for me. But if it works…


So, yeah, just to make a point, I had Sophie demolish my party at level 90. Seriously though if you’re facing her below level 100, you lose by default since she’ll strike first and get two actions, which means she’ll instantly blank two of your party members. And even at level 100, you need the most top-end speed traits possible just to get the jump on her.

Sophie as a boss is also designed to shut down a lot of the game-breaking strategies you’ve been using up to this point. It’s not safe to knock her back with a Lightning Crystal since she’ll instantly retaliate with Aura Strike, which even if it somehow doesn’t immediately knock out the attacker, will still knock them back to the end of the queue. So you’re going to take her attacks and you’re gonna like it. The Star Sprinkler can be risky since if Sophie loses MP, then she’ll use Sotea to massively buff her attack, defense and speed (to the tune of 1000 points each). That also makes it much harder to set up a Firis bomb, since you will need to buff Firis and make sure Sophie hasn’t supercharged herself in order to do the job.

Anyway, for her I’d recommend using a Spirit Weave Cloth with its AOE evasion-enhancing effect maximized, as well as applying buff traits (like Blessing of Strength or Blessing of Skanda or Soul Dwelling). Being able to dodge any of Sophie’s attacks gives you that much more leeway to set up on her. If you’re going to use the Star Sprinkler, then for the Firis Bomb, use an Eisen Luft with Purge Enhancements and both twin powers traits and Eternal Power (which adds physical damage so you can fire off Chains Quasar), so Firis can hit her at full force and so that you’re not stuck in an unwinnable situation with a massively buffed Sophie.

Music
Decaying Crown -Last Light-
Hello, Toyoda here! I always find myself living in dark, depressing places drowning in clouds of despair… But I was glad to be hauled away from all that for a while to work on this title. It’s enough to make my heart pound… And it’s just so bright. (Toyoda)

Decaying Crown -Dark Knight-
I also made a small contribution to the creation of sound effects. One that gave me particular trouble was the “sound of smoke.” The sound giving off by billowing smoke…? I may have to head back to “billow” ground and think about it. If you will excuse me. (Toyoda)

Shooting Star (Lydie & Suelle Ver.)
Hello. This is Ryudai Abe. I’m delighted to have been able to contribute again this time. I was given absolutely free rein to arrange this piece however I wanted. I hope you all like it. The original work is a lovely piece which I am very fond of. Shinpei Nozaki plays the guitar. (Abe)

Losaria
Toshinori Hiramatsu plays guitar on this track too. This piece feels typical for a collaboration between him and myself (lol), but the melody itself is fairly ostentatious. Part of this is due to the look of the boss, but I have always liked combining two antithetical elements within the one work - vigor and grace, for example - to create real complexity. (Achiwa)

Final Sanctuary
This one is for Lydie and Alt’s combination attack. From their characters and the name of the move, I felt this needed a touch of adolescent arrogance, so I deliberately made this in an awkwardly grand RPG style. (Achiwa)

Full-Power Gunplay
Mathias’s special move! I have a feeling that if Mathias existed in real life, he’d be very popular with the ladies, but what do you think? I like Sue’s line here. (Yanagawa)

Einzelkampf
This piece isn’t actually as sweaty and masculine as some might fear. I figured everyone’s glued to the screen anyway, so I could afford to really play around with the bass line. I found myself doing this a lot in this title… To be honest, I’ve always wanted to, and I just couldn’t hold it back anymore… (Yanagawa)

Song of Paintbrushes and Hope
For the ending theme, I invited Anri Kumaki to come sing for us. Figuring that the series’ twentieth anniversary is as good a time as any to try new things, I made a conscious effort this time to get as many new vocalists to the series as I could. They were all wonderful, and I felt very privileged every time I recorded their voices. HIROTOMO is on bass, Miyoshi on guitar, and Mukoyama on violin. (Yano)

Colors
This track features vocals by Chata, Dani on guitar and bass, and Ono on violin. It’s a smooth number, neither particularly powerful nor particularly emotionally stirring. It should match the voice work in-game in a way that isn’t jarring in the least. Actually, it’s quite hard to find in the game, so I have to express particular gratitude to those who managed to hear it for playing all the way to the end. […] The first verse is from father to child. The second is from the father to the whole family. I tried to switch the lyrical focus subtly in this manner. The second verse onwards doesn’t actually play in-game, so I was able to let loose and be more flamboyant with the arrangement. I hope this is the kind of song you can listen to after clearing the game, and fondly remember your favorite scenes. (Yanagawa)

And well… that’s it! The twins didn’t just reach S Rank and fulfill their promise to become the greatest alchemists in the kingdom. They ascended the pantheon of world’s greatest alchemists, they saved their mom and brought her back into the real world, and now they got to have their perfect, happy ending with the protagonists of the previous Mysterious games, working miracles wherever they go.

It’s been a hell of a ride these past ten months, and definitely a hell of a learning experience. Thank you all for your support! Now, time for me to figure out how to get this thing onto the archives…