Part 2: Quest Magnus Central

As Sagi and many of you all have mentioned, giving answers that Sagi likes will increase the likelihood that I will get good draws for my hand in battle. It's kinda nice now and will be insurmountably useful later on. It's also much easier to gauge what the “correct” answers are for Sagi than for that dickweed of a protagonist form Eternal Wings, so I'm not to worried about things turning out okay on that front.


Right. So I guess we'd better start heading out.





Wait, what is THAT?! Is that your paramachina? It's ancient, kid! Code S stands for “special ops”, not “screw around”. Get a clue, loser!


Wow, Dark Servicemen are jerks.


Hmm. This fight may be too much for you alone – provided their guns sting more than their wit. I'll act on my own for the time being. You just worry about yourself.





Guillo has joined our party, but is currently an AI character and will remain so for the rest of the mission. It is notably more powerful than Sagi and while I can't see its HP, it seems to be substantially more durable as well. It can even use Low Potions for extra healing!









It also has three special attacks; Firewheel, Fulgadrum, and Icefan. Icefan stands out as being a hit-all attack, though it is notably weaker than the others to compensate.





Oh, and I forgot to show the battle results screen off last time. EXP and Gold function like they do in pretty much every game. It's worth noting that, unlike Eternal Wings, you level up normally instead of having to visit the church.

TP is a little different. It's used as an EXP equivelant for Classing Up. We'll get to that later, but for now bear in mind that you get TP bonuses by setting up good attack chains which are often more valuable than the TP you get form the enemies themselves.


Okay, now that we've shut those guys up, let's finally get out of here.





Or not.


Too many men took the magna essence of the torches when getting ready. Now they've all gone out! So the captain just came by and told me to relight them all using some fire. The problem is, all of my blank magnus are filled with water. So, standard operating procedure says it's your responsibility to take over.


Standard...Wait, why me?!


Oh, simmer down. These kinds of jobs always go to the new guy! Look, I'll give you something nice when you're done, OK?


This is optional, although I didn't realize it in my first playthrough. It's a simple enough task.





Grab four flame magnus from one of the lamps in one of the rooms. There are four torches to be lit, two in each hallway.





By the way, Sagi can run Heartwing Dash by holding the B button. It is a delightful feature that more RPGs should have. He moves at about double speed when doing this. However, once that meter fills up completely, he will stop and get winded, and then move super slowly until the gauge empties again. Naturally, the gauge fills much faster in dungeons so you have to be careful when trying to use it to avoid battles. Even so, it's great to have for just running around towns and stuff.





Our reward for lighting the torches is a Magnus Pack Coupon. This can be turned in for free magnus! Magnus buying and trading is handled quite differently in this game, so I'll show it off when I have a chance.

All right, time to go and start the mission.





Video: Mansion Cutscene

Music: Two Coffins


Captain: Valara! You and I will launch a feint on the front gates. Meanwhile, Sagi – you take the remaining men and infiltrate from the rear. I'll leave the timing up to you. Everyone else, Sagi is in command. Let's see what our spiriter can do. We expect a heavy guard presence at the target's residence. Dispatch the guardsmen if necessary. Withdraw from the premises as soon as the hit in confirmed. I'll expect a full report tomorrow morning back at headquarters. Any questions?

You sure it's a good idea to entrust the main force to this novice? If he screws up, we take the heat. What do you think, spiriter? You up to the task?

Captain: Valara, watch your tone of voice. He'll do just fine. I might add this operation doesn't call for insubordination on your part.

Hmph. Sounds shady to me. Well, as long as you stay out of my way, everything'll be fine. You'd better not miss a step, ghost boy. This isn't a field trip.

Captain: I said that's enough, Valara! If there are no other questions...? All right, let's go.


The captain and Valara run off towards the front door.


...Where does she get off calling me “ghost boy”?





Yeah! She has no idea what you're capable of!

It's not just the girl. Look at your men. That's not exactly love on their faces.

...I suppose not. But hey, what difference does it make? I've got you and Meemai on my side. We can take care of it ourselves.

If Meemai's even half as powrful as the legends say, we could take care of just about anything.

You know I don't like that.

…...


Sagi seems to be taking this whole “everyone in my unit hates me” thing pretty well. I have to give him credit for that.





Meanwhile, Sagi and his unit sneak around to the back of the mansion.







Let me just reiterate that this game is hard. I've honest to god lost this fight before. Fortonately, this fight gives Sagi enough EXP to hit level 2, and the difference between 100 and 150 HP is appreciable.

Anyway, the soldiers here are nothing special. What's more interesting is that Guillo can transform its arm into some kind of bow, so that's awesome.





Yay?







This dungeon introduces the concept of sneaking. There are enough sleeping enemies throughout the game that sneaking can be useful, but I typically prefer to heartwing dash if I'm seriously trying to evade enemies.







As I mentioned earlier, some quest magnus raise and lower your character's stats. The Meat Fit for an Emperor increases Sagi's non-elemental defense by one point.

The stats are pretty straightforward. One thing I think is cool is that each character has their own set of elemental and status resistances; you'll note that Sagi is somewhat more resistant to fire but somewhat weak to ice/water and darkness. I've never noticed this making a huge difference overall, but I like the idea behind it at any rate.





This is the foyer. I went ahead and drew two waters from here.





While this game is (rather ironically) better about remembering that the characters have wings than Eternal Wings was, it still forgets every now and then. Hell, I wouldn't even need wings to get past this, I'd just climb over the stair railing. Oh well, whatever.





The poor mechanic got jumped by the guards and beaten up. Let's turn the tables a little.

Two dead guards later...








The fruit gives +5 max HP. Not exactly substantial, but I've survived fights in this game on less so I'll take it.





And this is better than the Punk Knife in Sagi's deck, so I swap them out.





The box on the right is the magnus Sagi can use in battle. Generally you'll want most of these to be basic attack magnus (that is, the magnus filling the first two rows). I usually give each character a weapon magnus or two and some finishers, and throw in a few healing items.

It's worth noting that you can create multiple decks. This is handy if you find that you want different configurations for different battles and don't want to keep having to swap everything out all the time – you can just switch decks instead. However, I am not able to do that at my current class level.





T-Thanks. Whew, those soldiers don't kid around. Here I came all this way to check up on their stupid crestwall. Have they got nerve! You're the intruders, right? I overheard one of the soldiers say someone had broken in. Let me know if I can help at all. I owe you one. Plus I'd love a chance to get back at those goons.


All right! Unfortunately he doesn't offer any specific help. I'll go explore some more and see what else I can find. Let's try the room across the way. It was locked, but I can use the key I just got to get inside.







Hey, this might be useful!

Meanwhile, back in the mechanic's room...





This is why I needed two doses of water; the guy managed to fall asleep in the two seconds I was gone.


Yeow, that's c – cold! What's the big idea?

You mentioned the crestwall...well, it's blocking our way. Is there anything you can do about it?





Oh, well that's convenient!


He leaves the room (and takes about fifteen seconds to do so, during which time I cannot move...)







Once that rubber melts, though the crestwall will be up again. Be careful on your way out.


Oh, so basically I won't be using this route to leave the dungeon. Good to know.





This is another of Sagi's specials. I generally prefer Scension, myself, but this is plenty useful, too. I'll have to find a way to show these off sometime.





Video: Assassination

Music: The Edging Away


Sagi, wait. I hear voices.


???: Good evening, Your Imperial Majesty. So sorry I've neglected to visit.

Emperor: You!...Of course. The commotion outside is your doing. Hmph. I might have known the snake's ambitions would one day turn to treachery!

???: I'm afraid I don't follow, Your Magnificence. To whose ambitions might you be referring? And treachery? Surely the Lord of All Nations need not jump to such rash conclusions. Besides, I have nothing to do with the commotion outside. Or should I say-






You're right. We can't just sit around out here. All right, once we've stormed the room, my paramachina and I will take out the emperor. The rest of you, back us up. Here we go!





The man with the strangely endearing hat turns back to face the Emperor.


Emperor Olgan, if you'll excuse me, I'll be taking this list of Malpercio's afterlings.


The what now? That has to be plot relevant. Anyway, the man walks right past Sagi and Guillo, out of the room.


Let him go! Our target is the emperor! Come on, Guillo!


The group runs up to the emperor, but...









Music: Into the Spiral Tension


Captain Serviceman Sagi! I hereby sentence you to death for the murder of our emperor!

1 But, Captain! You gave us these orders! I thought you said this mission was for Lord Baelheit!

2 Yeah, we're not even responsible! Someone else killed the emperor! He was dead when we got here!

Captain: Silence them. They mustn't escape. Open fire! Annihilate them!





The only way out is through! Also, look at Guillo, tanking those bullets like it's nothing.

Are you crazy? We can't win against those numbers! We have to run. Meemai! Guillo, hang in there!









Well, this could be going better...