Part 2: Liquid Snake?!

Update 2: Liquid Snake?!

Music: Amid Butterflies and Moonlight



WE ARE LEGION!



You mean you heard Legion's voice?

I did. Just barely, though...So, your name is Legion. I'm Xelha. Nice to meet you, Legion!



* giggle * Your voice tickles me...It feels strange.

Incidentally, choosing “Whatever!” would have just made Xelha say something to the effect of “Aww, don't be mean. It really is nice to meet you!”...followed by getting the prompt again. You see, the game needs you to be polite, because that's not something Kalas expects, which leads us to...



That reminds me, Doc Larikush was worried about amnesia...Like I'd hit my head or something. Don't tell me you've lost your memory and forgot everything that happened before that! Is that it?

Kalas, you're insulting our intelligence. Of course



Really? Well, that's good to hear. I was kind of worried. But...

(monster roaring offscreen)

Let's talk about this later. This doesn't look like a nice place to chat. I figure you'll remember soon enough.

But I just said-



I have to go to the ancient ruins deep in the forest. What about you two?

We're headed that way, too. You want to go together?

If you don't mind. But before we leave...Could you spare me a minute?

Xelha walks back over to the dead bodies of her former companions...



Gram...Leon...Thank you...for everything...




Cast Light upon the darkened earth...
Save those lost in despair...
O, mighty Ocean, guide us as we journey through
the darkest pit of night...





Goodbye, Gram and Leon. You will be missed.

And by missed, I mean they will be the subject of a nearly game long delivery quest that is almost guaranteed to ruin 100% magnus completion in first time playthroughs not utilizing guides.



But the good news is, Xelha has formally joined the party!

Let's move on to the next area, and I'll give a bit more explanation as to how the gameplay mechanics of Baten Kaitos work.









Treasure report! Gee, you think there might be a water-based boss fight in our future?

Anyway, first let's check out the character data screen.





The stats are pretty much self-explanatory, and frankly not very important. Agility and HP are the only stats I personally think are worth worrying about – ATK and DEF are both trivial compared to the quality of the magnus you're using, and VIT is just some sort of modifier that affects how much HP increases on level ups – which would be nice if there was any realy way to increase VIT besides...you know...leveling up.

(actually, there are a couple consumables that boost VIT permanently, so giving that to a character early on should give them a marginally higher HP amount later.)

Deck, Hand, and ComboMax are all tied to the character's class. Both Kalas and Xelha are Class 1 at the moment, so all of these values are the same for both characters.

Below all that, you can see what Equipment Magnus the character is using. Equipment Magnus give resistances to various status ailments, and can give stat boosts to HP, ATK, DEF, and AGL. Each character has their own exclusive set of equipment magnus, so I can't give Xelha's anklet to Kalas.

That about covers character status. Honestly, most of it's not that important; what really matters is what magnus are in your character's decks!



The stuff on the left is our stock – all the random crap that we've collected during our travels. For example, that fire sword that I just picked up for Kalas is in this pile at the moment.

Xelha's hand is on the right. With this menu I can swap stuff in and out of her deck, updating it with more powerful magnus or messing with the ratio of offense/defense/item/elemental/etc cards she has.
Since this Leather Hat offers a better defense boost than some of those leather vests in her deck, I'll switch it in for one!



I doubt you all want me to chronicle every single time I swap out one magnus for another, so I'll mostly just be mentioning when I get a new card if I plan on adding it or not. I may show deck updates occasionally before dungeons and boss fights and stuff, or if I swap a new character in or something.




I got rid of some of Kalas' crappy Short Swords in favor of a few less crappy Sabers, the fiery fire sword, and Kalas' level 1 finisher, Blue Storm. Xelha already has hers, Dance of Light, but it didn't appear during my screenshot OR video battles with the Sabre Dragon.



So one nice thing about deck magnus is that you can use them as many times as you want – as long as they pop up in your hand at some point during battle. Because of this, you can go into a battle, play some healing cards, and end up leaving the battle with more HP than before.

However, some magnus are consumable, and can be used outside of battle (and only outside of battle). These include the Shish Kebabs, which restore some HP percentage, as well as some status recovery items and stat boosters. I don't really use these all that often but it's good to have some Shish Kebabs and Wheat Crackers (recover from KO) on hand in case you are about to go up against a boss and need the boost.



The developers also saw fit to add a menu detailing which magnus you've found out of how many total.

There are 1022 magnus total. And I'd say at least 150 of those are one-chance-only lost forevers. Probably more.

Well, that's enough about the gameplay for now. We'll get back to it later as more stuff becomes relevant. For now, let's head north...

Video: Liquid Snake (contains Kalas and Xelha's level 1 finishers!)



This is a nice spot...very soothing. It's also the ancient ruins Xelha and Kalas keep talking about, although there's nothing especially ruin-y about it.

Is this the place?

Music: Bottom Out



Uh-oh.





I honestly am not sure how I would react if the floor turned into outer space and then there was a geyser also. I think I'd probably think it was awesome and the die horribly.



Xelha summoned a water snake!...with fins that are flower petals!



You know that scene in Firefly where Wash is playing with his toy dinosaurs? The Lord of the Springs voice acting reminds me of that scene. Seriously, watch the video for this, you have to hear him.

Also, maybe it's just me, but this guy looks even more than

Music: The True Mirror (Guitar Version)



The battle starts off with a click as Kalas takes the monster's picture, to later be sold to a Loch Ness Monster fanatic for a healthy profit.



As I hinted at earlier, this boss is heavily water based. Xelha can really rip it up with fire attacks, but using two Aqua Bursts results in this rather unsatisfactory amount of damage.



The Flame Sword, however...



...is where it's really at.





The boss has two special attacks. Thundering Falls is a basic breath attack. It, coupled with the three hit combo beforehand, can do about 45 damage.





When it reaches critical health, it starts using one attack followed by Dragon Press instead. The attack itself is stronger than Thundering Falls, but since he only uses one attack instead of three before it, the overall damage output ends up being lower.

This is the first real boss fight, but it's still not very hard. Unless you really don't know what you're doing (which is actually kind of understandable given how far from the norm this game's battle system is), you should pull through without any real trouble. The worst part is when it's spamming Thundering Falls, but even that falls just short of killing Xelha in two hits if she doesn't defend at all. No big deal really.

Music: Star Spangled Journey



Arrrr







Kalas, don't tou-

(Kalas touches it)

Dammit!









The gate to Ar has been opened. Stars, be prepared...for the song of destruction!


I have a feeling we just did something very, very bad.

_{I blame Cedr}




Kalas drops the magnus...

Who – or what – are you?! Malpercio is the name of a cursed evil god from ancient times!

How was I supposed to know? And why do you know all this?



Suddenly a group of soldiers appears from a ship that flies overhead that I managed not to screencap because I am dumb!



...You!

Kalas apparently knows this guy. And really, really hates him.




I'm not with her.




Kalas tries to fight them off, but gets knocked out by a gun butt to the skull...



(fade to black)






































_Squeak!



























Squeak!




It's you, Meemai. Thanks...I'll live. They caught me off guard. Looks like they took that shining Magnus, too. I can't believe how lucky I am, though. To find him here, of all places...

Giacomo! The man who killed my grandfather, and Fee! I'll get you, Giacomo!



–

Well, it looks like things are up to you all once again! I played ahead a bit and it looks like the next choice isn't for a while, so we might actually make it through a whole field dungeon in the next update!