Part 21: Joe the Volcano.

Sorry for the horrifically cheesy title. Sometimes the titles write themselves, sometimes not. I will warn you guys in advance that I forgot a ton of screenshots for this update...I was hoping to end up with more, but for reasons that shall soon be evident, I didn't gather as many as I wanted.



Ah Krusty, another clown that is absolutely terrifying. What is it about Clowns and insanity that makes them fit so perfectly? Anyway, ZzZzZz won the Dreamin contest. That name was particularly annoying to input into the game.


Speaking of annoying, here is Ghosh outside Nico's house. He yells at the house, presumably Nico is behind the door keeping it locked, and then takes a step back. But, we can walk up to the door and go inside.
: Whaaaaa... Oh no. Why would you let a stupid guy like Mr. Mamoru in and not ME?
It's simple: you're a rich asshole that will flirt with anything he sees.


: I'm glad. Recently, it gives me pleasure just to see your face.
This is actually all Nico has to say to us. I talk to her several times, and even exit and re-enter the house, but the dialog remains at this...surprisingly small amount. Anyway, right down the street is Selfi, as per usual.


: I know so much about you. I heard you're really 30 years old.
: No, that's not true! || Yes, that's right.
: Mamoru is such a mystery.
Fun fact: :psuedo: The game has no end point, and presumably each time you enter the tower is one day. You could theoretically enter the tower 5475 (365 x 15) times before having this conversation. Anyway, now to the creepy glasses girl.


: My name is Mia Myria. Would you mind telling me your name?
: It's Mr. Mamoru. || It's Mamoru.
: So it's Mr. Mamoru. The lead character in the novel called Love for Loli is also named Mamoru. According to the novel, Mamoru helps a young lady he met at the library develop into a gorgeous woman.
(Cue lots of mumbling again...)
: Oh, I'm sorry. I just got so carried away. I'm going on with a boring subject again, right?
: Actually quite interesting. || You're boring.
And somewhat creepy...I hope she doesn't take this book as a metaphor.


Fuck. She took it metaphorically. I hope she doesn't turn into a stalker.


The Yellow Sushi is also $500. All that is left is Red Sushi.
: When vinegar is added to the rice of Monsbaiya, the rice will change to any of seven colors, depending on the proportion of vinegar used. This restaurant prepares four different batches of vinegared rice, each used for a different selection of sushi ingredients. The vinegared rice here is slightly yellow. It has the most common taste... So as you're eating, the taste of the rice will mix with the fresh ingredient, giving a sensation of melting on your tongue.
...dammit, I just ate, and now I'm even more hungry? Curse you food porn for being so yummy! Anyway, it's off to go see Vivian again.


: Yes I do. || … no I don't.
: That's why your eyes reflect hope. You know, I've got a dream too. My dream is to dance on an enourmus stage. But although I've been to several cities, not one of them has a decent theater. Rumors had it the city of Haruka had one, but it's gone. It's a pity to have a dream but not the chance. Maybe I should start traveling again.
In Vivian's defense, I can't blame her for not knowing about Fon's Theater. The only shows there are really bad comedy shows.
Anyway, around this time I realize that I still have the octopus dumplings for Fur in the safe, so I figure now is a great time to give them to her.


: You've got octopus dumplings, don't you!
: You can have them, Fur. || I'm not giving you any.
: Really? Thanks. Appreciate it. Yay, octopus dumplings. Munch, munch. For me to receive something from Mamoru. Life never ceases to amaze me. Food stand by the windmill. Haven't been to one of those in a while. Back out west, I had this every day. Munch munch, This is good. Munch munch. Munch munch. Thanks.
: I'm here to buy. || I'm here to sell. || I'm just looking.
: Aww, man!
From now on, I'm going to find it impossible to take Fur seriously anymore. She just destroyed everything I liked about her. So let's go to someone that is impossible to hate.


: I'll do my best. So come again.
Like with Nico, this is all she says. It's kinda disappointing there wasn't any effort put here. Hopefully next trip she'll be better.

I forgot to grab a screenshot for the inventory into the Tower. It's pretty much the same as last time, only with Kefka and Joe instead of Blue October and Seuss.

Floor 1



Like with Blue October and Seuss, I fuse these two together. Really, this is probably my least necessary of the three fusions I'm going to do, but I wanted to do this one to balance my Fire monster with my Water and future Wind monster. Either way, Joe still has the Magic Attack Increased trait, meaning Sled is only going to get even more crazy powerful. I don't know if these go above lv99, so let's find out! For now though, I put Joe back in the bag. I'll power level him later on.

Floor 2


You have no idea how relieved I am to see you. This is going to be fun.
: Do you wish to stay close to me?
: No thank you. || I feel lonelier.
: Hummmm. How rude! Your speech and behavior are not very courteous. I cannot allow it any more. We shall battle right here, right now.
: I don't have time for that. || I accept your challenge.
But I have something special planned for him. Remember, I have a monster with a lv. 54 spell. I want to see how powerful it is. Come on out, Joe!
: Oh?


:
FUCK! I knew this was a risk, but I forgot how powerful Ghosh actually is. Joe did a good job and first appeared behind me in safety, but then Joe moved into Ghosh's range...and Ghosh promptly took out Joe before he even had a chance to do anything.
Time to murder Ghosh the old fashioned way.


: Ummmm... I guess I let my guard down a little. So 4 wins and 0 losses for you. I'll be back.
He tosses the traditional Medicinal Herb of Victory...but it feels hallow and empty. Joe lays weak and weary in the bag. I hope I'm lucky enough to find a Restore Scroll, or at least a Wind Crystal sometime soon. My survivability in the Tower just got shot down.

Floor 3


I find an Acid Rain orb, which sounds nice, but I'm remembering my luck with them. Every one I find seems to have only one charge in it. I should plan on this following the same.


I'd like to spend a moment and mention two things that Azure Dreams has done to the Roguelike genre that I have yet to see in any other roguelike that I play. First, is wide hallways. Almost every Roguelike I play features narrow 1-square hallways that are annoying as hell to navigate through, because you can never go around a monster if for some reason you want to; you are forced to fight them or run in the opposite direction, and likely get boxed in by two monsters. The fact that Azure Dreams makes almost all of the hallways two-squares really helps the monster-raising aspect, because now you can keep familiars beside you and fight with you in the hallways, not just in rooms. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, which featured 2-4 member parties, didn't include wide hallways, even though it probably should have because it would make the hallway battles much more bearable. That, and it just adds a little extra aesthetic to it.

Second, is elevation. I have yet to figure out how much of a bonus it is, but whoever is one square above seems to get a 2-3 point bonus to ATK and DEF. If you notice, I"m hanging around this one square that's an elevation down in the hallway. Enemy monsters are stupid enough to walk right into it, so I often dance around these dips in the ground to abuse the elevation bonus if I can't find a spot that's naturally elevated instead. Once again, almost every other Roguelike I have played doesn't include any elevation at all, and this is a simple little feature that adds so much depth to the game...literally.

Anyway, this is enough of a tangent for me, back to the game.

Floor 4


I don't know when I picked up this Blaze orb, but I'm glad I got it. I'm on a Slow trap, and a Cyclone was right around the corner to abuse that. I'm grateful that orbs are really powerful on early floors, and are almost always instant death if you follow the elemental rock-paper-scissors. I'm a little more open to using them now, especially since I haven't found a Wind Crystal, and I just can't afford to take risks anymore. That thing with Joe was just idiotic on my part.


: Yes. Yes it was.

Floor 5


I am so relieved to find this. This is my first sand for my new set of equipment, but I think I might prefer a Blue Sand at the moment. A natural +3 DEF from the shield is a bit lacking, even now.


Jeez...the RNG is really angry with me today. I use the Blaze orb to take down the Baloons. By the time the Manoeva reaches me, I'm out of charges on the orb, so I use the Medicinal Herb from Ghosh to stay alive.

Floor 6

Uhh...yeah...totally forgot to get any screenshots on here. Not much happened, still no Wind Crystal.

Floor 7


I use my Acid Rain orb here. Blumes have a lot of HP and if these two charge me at once, I'm dead.
: My, my, my... paranoid, are we?


Fuck. That was a waste. The one on the right was chasing me for a while, and I tried to lure it away so I could use a height advantage to take it down with my delicate DEF. Cue the second U-Boat on the left. I pray to the RNG that the Acid Rain ball has another charge.
: No.





: So...here we are again, eh? It hasn't even been that long. Now you've lost your other Trained wand.
: This son of yours is really pathetic.
: Nah. He just got unlucky this time.
: Excuse me?
: Oh sorry, I forgot you were out for his blood. Why was that exactly?
: The boy has forgotten his duty in the Tower. He should be raising his monsters, not seeking revenge on some harmless halfwit.
: That "harmless" halfwit one-shotted his monster.
: And the young Volcano would have survived had it remained in the safety of the bag.
: You probably would have murdered that monster anyway.
: True, but he would have gotten much farther and had a chance to raise the Volcano to a higher level. Because of his foolish actions, I didn't even bless the child with an Oleem.
: He wouldn't have used it anyway. The kid's got too much pride to even touch Oleems.
: A lesson he'll be forced to learn should he climb to the top.

END OF DAY! KILL COUNT FOR THE DAY!

: 19 Pulunpas, 8 Noises, 22 Trolls (Hammer), 16 Flames, 14 Cyclones, 17 Baloons, 19 Manoevas, 2 Manoeva Clones, 8 Blumes, 1 U-Boats, 132 KILLS TOTAL
Defeated Ghosh.

: No Direct Kills.
Flame Sword assists: No Kill-assists.
Heat Wave assists: No Kill-assists.
Defeated by Ghosh.
~~~~~~~~~~~~


: Hey! Mamoru! Get up or your brain's going to start melting! You're pretty dull as it is, do you want to get worse?
: Who are you calling dumb!? || Okay, okay, I'll get up.
: Oh! Were you listening?
Because Fur is officially our girlfriend, she'll wake us up from now on, instead of Weedy or Nico. Once we get another girlfriend, they'll start a rotation. I'm not joking. It's something they do in the background, all getting along with each other instead of actually fighting over Mamoru.


Somehow, seeing this hurts me even more than last time.


But at least Joe is still around...even though I lose all my items, monsters never fade. I feel really horrible, letting Joe die like that. I thought it would be cool to do a ton of damage through a Sled against Ghosh, but yeah... That'll have to wait for another day.


: which worries me a bit. Go out and mack some cash!
Oh yeah, once you have a girlfriend, they'll stick around and you can talk to them. Each one does something different. Fur sweeps. Oh, and once you leave...


Yup. Once you start collecting girlfriends, you start collecting kisses.  And just you wait until we get the final house upgrade... 

Ugh...I am really embarrassing myself with this LP. Fortunately, I'm still prepared. I've got three wands, three swords (two of them Gold) and another Mirror shield sitting the safe. Losing that second Training Wand sucks, but I will carry on, no matter what the RNG throws at me.
: I will make you eat those words.