Part 8: Thunder is not an element in this game

Update 8: Thunder is not an element in this game

Video: Gibari again





This is a nice bit that shows that Kalas does really value your input...if you pick this answer. Choosing “Let's turn him down” results in Kalas bitching you out because you clearly weren't paying attention.

Huh? What are you mumbling about?

I wasn't mumbling. I was talking to Legoin, my Guardian Spirit.

So there's a spirit with you, huh? A being from another world, bound to your soul? Thought that was just an old folk tale.

Believe it or not...I don't care.

Y'know Kalas, you're pretty cool sometimes.

Anyway, let's go have a look at that “Little Celestial River”. I'm Kalas.

And I am Xelha.

Nice meeting ya both, Kalas, Xelha. And...What's your spirit called?

Legion.

Legion, huh? That's a weird name. Well, Legion, nice meeting ya too.

Well that was rude.



Hmm. Dunno why, but it feels like I'm talkin' to the wall...Humph. Never mind. Okay, off we go to the harbor. We'll take my boat to the river.



And so we officially have our third party member! Only one more and you guys can start voting on my battle lineup.



Gibari is the slow but sturdy character. His attack, defense, and HP are all a bit higher than Kalas and way better than Xelha, but he is MUCH slower by contrast. Since I value AGL more than the other stats, this looks kinda bad for him. However, his combination of high durability and poor speed make him actually quite well-suited to being a healer, since he will often get his turn after the enemy (so there's damage to be healed) while being difficult to kill.


At any rate, I hinted in the last update's gameplay bit that I like to grind a little at the Cloud Passage before actually setting off to the Lesser Celestial River. You see, the enemies there give decent exp, but more importantly, they drop a couple of good magnus that I want to have.





The Shako is a fairly good defense magnus for Xelha, so I got a bunch and replaced most of her previous equipment (for reference, her initial defense magnus provided 8 def and I think the best one she had before only gave 16). I kept her water defense magnus but removed her fire one because I am a big dummy.

The milk, meanwhile, is both a better heal than bananas, but also I don't have to worry about Milk aging as much as I do with my ready to spoil bananas. In fact, milk will eventually age into cheese, which is an even better healing item! Granted, cheese will eventually age into rotten food, but that won't be for a while. Anyway, I got 2 milk for Xelha and Gibari, and 3 for Kalas.

I also went by the store...







Giacomo's picture sells for a ton of cash, even though photos of people aren't supposed to sell for much. Well, whatever. Note that the picture is really bright – since I had Xelha use a bunch of Light based magnus before getting his picture, that ended up messing with the quality. If I'd balanced it out by using a bunch of dark magnus as well the picture would have turned out better, although obviously that would be a bad idea in the context of the actual fight.



The store sells some decent weapon magnus for Kalas and Xelha (but not Gibari, oddly enough). It also sells this buckle, which gives a decent boost to Kalas' stats, so I bought that too and equipped it.







Their stats still seem to be spreading out the same way. Gibari is slow but powerful, Xelha is fragile but speedy, Kalas is the happy medium who seems to get the best of everything.

Now that I've skipped past that bit, let's move on with the plot, shall we?





I should have known he wasn't going to disappear forever.

Think about what you're doing! How can you just ignore our village rules?

I don't have time to mess around with those ancient superstitions. Sitting around doing nothing like you guys isn't gonna change anything. I'll do what I have to do.

That's...You can't!

What are you gonna do? Stand in my way? Maybe use force to stop me? Answer me, Reblys.

Damn you, Gibari!

Sorry, pal. We're short on time. I'll see ya around.

They start to leave again, but...

Gibari! You think the whole world revolves around you? Always doing your own thing, your own way...Why don't you ever think about the villagers, and what's important to them? As long as you get what you want, nothing else matters, it that it?

Hey! Calm down, Reblys. I was never good at these...debates.



Thank god we're finally out of there. I thought Reblys would never let us leave, but Gibari's utter indifference to Reblys' bullshit won the day!

On a related note, you see that guy bent over by his ship on the right? He's always in that position. His spine must be made of rubber for him to be able to stay that way all the time. Also, doesn't it freak him (and anyone else) out that if he falls over he's going to fall for miles before either burning to a crisp or splatting on the actual ground? I wonder if his wings would give him time to react and fly back up. I think about these things.

...Right, anyway, nice little overworld transition and then...

Music: An Icy Fog





This is one of it's offshoots. Hence the name “Lesser” Celestial River. Some say its waters come from the Ocean, trapped somewhere in another dimension. I dunno if I buy that, though.



As you are quite capable of figuring out on your own, this is the resident water themed dungeon of the game. As such, the enemies are largely water-based, so Xelha should load up on Fire Bursts. Sadly, all of Kalas' Flame Swords have burned out and become Sabers, so his offense isn't as good as it could be, but he still manages okay.

On the other hand, this is a crappy place for Gibari's first dungeon. Gibari, as a fisherman in the Land of the Clouds, is largely wind and water based, so the enemies in this entire island tend to be resistant to his weapons. Plus, both of his current finishers are water based, too.



Great dark based weapon for Kalas, better than any non-finisher Magnus he currently has.

There are two enemies here. One enemy type is a frog that has no real points of interest besides having a really weak heal the use at low HP. The other enemies are...uh...





...creative. Boozed up turtlemen? They can put a character to sleep, but that's all of note with them. Besides the fact that they are...whatever the hell they are.







Kalas decided that he wanted to get a lot of Guardian Spirit attacks here. Every single one was either Shining Seraph or Sacred Spring, the latter of which is remarkably underpowered in this place.



Near the starting point, we see this treasure chest blocked off by rushing water. This is another one of those places where Kalas forgets he can fly and subsequently refuses to go get the chest even though he totally can...

Towards the end of the first screen we find a couple more Magnus.





The Mana Stone is Kalas' next Class Up item. I could go back to Nashira and use it now, but eh...this dungeon is easy enough (especially after the spot of grinding I did) that I don't really need to.














Gibari's current finishers. I can't wait to get to a fire based dungeon and Crystal Shot some poor fool into nothingness.



Woohoo, a camera! This instantly goes into Xelha's deck. I believe I mentioned this before, but to get a full Gathering list you have to get every single enemy and boss' picture taken at some point (although you don't have to actually select the picture as your loot magnus after battle). It's particularly important because some battles will force certain characters into your team, so you generally want as many characters to have a Camera as you can.







Revenge of the waterfall gimmick! This time there are three waterfalls in a row that consistently switch on and off in a cycle. It's just a matter of learning the timing and slipping in between two right as the one in front of you stops and the one right over you starts. I actually have some trouble with this one, but thankfully I managed to get through on my first try this time.

It wouldn't be that annoying except that if you screw up you get into a forced encounter with the turtlethings. It's not a threat, but it takes a minute or two to actually get through the battle...





All right guys, are you ready for a boss fight? Let's get on to the next screen.

Video: The Thunderfish (warning: This boss battle is boring as hell to watch and a good example of why this is a screenshot LP)









aaaaaugh that it the weirdest fish I've ever seen auugh



The Thunderfish is much like the other two enemies here: funky looking but unremarkable otherwise. It's water and light elemental, so Kalas can get some decent damage in with his new dark sword and Shadow Wings, while Xelha can string together some nice fire attacks but has the disadvantage of having purely light-based finishers. Gibari's still at a big disadvantage offensively, but he can still soak up hits I guess.



The boss occasionally spends it's whole turn on one attack called Venemous Droplets. It does no damage but has a high (absolute?) chance of poisoning the target. Poison is not really a big deal in this game and honestly I don't even bother curing it unless I happen to get the healing item (Mineral Water: Gibari joins with two) while I'm already healing that character anyway.



As I said with the video, this boss fight is really boring. I mean, the boss itself is boring enough, but in this particular fight all three of my characters got their healing Milks very early on in their hands...and since I don't want to use them just yet, that basically means they are wasting two of my four spaces. I ended up using them even when I didn't really need to just so they'd get out of the way and de-clutter my hand.

This is probably Baten Kaitos' biggest drawback (Besides the voices if you don't find them hilarious): if your characters get bad hands, then you have to sit around discarding or healing when you don't need to just to get the fight going again. Or wait out the timer until your turn automatically ends with nothing happening. It can be very frustrating, although thankfully the boss fights are usually easy enough that it's not going to make you lose a battle you would have won.









I'm not actually sure what element Thundercloud is. I assume it's Light, but...I dunno, I guess it could be Water or even Wind. Regardless, it's decently powerful but nothing major.



Xelha gets three Fire Burst Level II magnus in a row. It just so happened that all three of the ones I got have the number 8 on them.



Ohhhh yeah.





For our victory, we get Kalas' Level 3 finisher, a fancy new circlet for Xelha, and Pisces the fish constellation! Also I snag a picture of the boss, too. I wonder what it'll go for?



The waters are calm, and...um...that's the boss' skull. Okay...?



The world is coming unraveled at the seams. Little by little...

Is it because we broke that seal? Back at that spring in Sadal Suud?

The world...unraveling? Broken seal? Whad'ya talkin' about?

He clearly pronounces the g in talking even though there's an apostrophe.

We have to go back! King Ladekahn needs to hear about this.



The game automatically deposits us back at the previous screen, so let's turn around and come back to where we fought the boss, now that everything's calm and Kalas can actually get places.





Is it just me, or does it look like you shouldn't be able to cross this? I know on my first playthrough I never knew you could. Actually I don't think I ever came back here. Ah, youth.



...did I mention that enemies drop some strange stuff sometimes?



Decent new equipment for Gibari, but not the one I'm looking for...

Off to the next screen.



Music: Soft Labyrinth

Whaddya know, we're at the Cloud Passage! This part is inaccessible from the proper Cloud Passage, but shares a screen. If I had tried to come here earlier, this is the place that would have been completely flooded over.





Oh my god I can't believe that's actually an option.

(No, I don't know what happens if you don't save the kid. You monster).







Well, there's another member of the family. Hey, this kid's mother is that woman back in Nashira!

Also, there's another kid here.





Now we just have to find the daddy and that'll be one family group completed.

(he's on the same screen, but in the proper Cloud Passage part that I can't reach from here).



One last loot report. Now it's time to head back towards Gibari's boat.







Oh yeah, the skull. I bet it'll do something important and/or interesting!



It did! It cut off the water flow so I can reach the magnus chest from earlier!



And our resard is Xelha's class up item! This one can conceivably missed if you accidentally do the next step first (or just ignore the skull entirely). Yes, some class up items can be completely missed, so you really need to keep an eye out so you don't miss any.



I...don't know why I would want this, but sure. I'll go ahead and take it.

It's actually a bad idea to get this now – the skull vanishes once you get it's magna essence in one of your Quest Magnus, and it will be burning up a Quest Magnus slot for a fairly long time. I just did it because it's here and I didn't feel like coming back for it since I'm pretty sure there's no reason other than this and those two kids to ever return here.







Ugh, I hope we don't have to stay here long...oh SHIT.







You talkin' to me?!

Calm down, kid. Let's just do as they say...for now.



(push the soldier off, Xelha, you know you want to)

It looks like we're stuck in town now. The guards are watching the exit and say no one can enter or leave. But there is one place I can go that they can't do anything about!









Some level ups and class ups. Kalas and Xelha now get five cards to their hand and can play four in one turn, as well as an increase in deck size. However, classing up now has a drawback which I believe Vicas mentioned earlier; I am now on a timer to pick my first card, instead of being able to wait as long as I like. The timer is still quite long for now, but that will change. Oh, that will change...







I do not want your secret recipe! Take it back!





Well, there's nothing for you to vote on this time. Look forward to the proper Cloud Passage and a boss battle that Gibari's actually worth something in next time on Let's Play Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean!