Baten Kaitos Origins Part #29

Part 29: Forest Fire

Music: Emotional Blackmail

Nunki Valley's forest in now ablaze. The Imperial soldiers have created a couple of blockades and have several cranes placed throughout the area, effectively changing the layout and our means of progressing through the area.

It would appear the developers kept the old description of Flame Ice. I sure don't see a desert anywhere around here. Let's take some.

The cranes have overheated and are locked into position. By using Flame Ice on them we can cool them down and they'll move into a new, progress-friendly position.

All told, the dungeon is pretty short. There are some soldiers torching the woods that will attack you if you walk in to them, but otherwise it's just the same old bats and cats to fight. Nothing much to the place, really.

Some new magnus have popped up around the area. Most of them are finishers (and most of those are ice/water based finishers), but this is a nice upgrade for Sagi. Well, it would be if it weren't fire based, anyway. Maybe I'll switch it in when this area is complete.

That was easy. Time to take on Heughes!

Video: Heughes and a surprise

Heughes! What do you think you're doing?!

What does it look like? I'm removing what's in the way. Makes for a good show, doesn't it?

No! The people of Sadal Suud need this forest! Make your men stop right now!

Heughes turns to a soldier standing nearby.

You. Bring me my machina arma.

Yes, sir!

Hey! We're talking to you!

Stop your fussing. You'll get your chance to fight me...right now!

Now! Get ready to think your dying thoughts!

Music: Iconoclasm

So, it's time to fight Heughes. He's a little different from Nasca and Valara in that his machina arma isn't a vehicle. Of course, that's not to say his arma isn't just as deadly.

Like the other machina arma battles, this is one of those fights where the boss has low HP but high defense. Our damage output against these things seems to be improving ever so slightly, but it's still hard to do a significant amount of damage.

Also unlike the others, Heughes needs to charge up his special attack. Which is good for us, because...

...it's pretty much a guaranteed KO on whoever it hits. Sagi miiiight survive it at full health, but basically once I see Heughes charging up I assume he's going to KO someone and start digging through my deck for a Fate's Cordial and some sort of Potion.

His basic combos can be quite painful as well, although they're not quite as devastating.

So this fight basically boils down to me getting exploded a lot and trying to have revival+healing items when it happens. Fortunately, my attacks are getting strong enough that I'm able to kill Heughes without too much trouble as long as I can get my heals when I need them.

I have no idea how I bounced back form having only Milly standing, but somehow I made it happen. Sometimes the Guardian Spirit bond helps out by pulling a Fate's Cordial and/or potions to the front of the deck, which is always helpful in situations like this.

Anyway, you've got the gist of the fight, so let's move on to the part where Heughes wins.

Don't you get it?! That's why we have to stop him!

Damn right, Meemai! That's what I want to hear! If we let him go, the damage won't stop with this valley!

Have you said your fill? I'd like to get this over with.

Well, it looks like we're not as overwhelmed as usual, but this is still looking kind of grim. And then, a new character walks onto the scene...

Hm? Ah, what have we here? If it isn't Sagi. Have you been pestering Heughes? Your timing couldn't be better. As if happens, I've brought something fun for you to play with.

Shanath gets on a cellphone of his own...I wonder what a on the phone portrait for Shanath would look like?

It's me. Be a dear and drop the cargo over Nunki Valley. No, that's all right. I'M giving you clearance...JUST DO IT!...If you would.

What was that about?

Stand back and see for yourself. Mm hm hm!

Music: The Dead-End Creatures

An afterling?! What are you thinking, Shanath?

This one's an unexpected acquisition – a mongrel! Its host was a wild animal. I was having it brought to Lord Baelheit, but – waste not, want not. Why send the precious creature off when we could use it to take care of Sagi first?

Does Lord Baelheit know about this?

No. Why trouble him? We're killing two birds with one stone.

You snake...

Sagi, look out!

It seems this gremlin wants a little attention!

Music: Poacher

And just like that, we get thrown into another boss battle. This afterling is nasty, but all in all I think it's a relief after Heughes.

It's still a difficult fight, of course. It seems faster than Heughes was (not to mention it never wastes a turn charging), but it also doesn't rock me quite as hard per attack string. It does have a nasty special that drains HP, but HP drain in this game is pretty trivial since enemies have so much more HP than I do, and I deal so much more damage than they.

I really messed this fight up at the beginning. I got a decent combo going and decided to MP burst, only to totally screw up Guillo's inputs (specifically, it could have equipped a weapon but I didn't do it so it's attacks were much weaker than they should have been, and that got me flustered so I screwed up the rest of the command inputs too.)

Fortunately, the boss was good about spreading its attacks out, and my healing magnus came through quite frequently, so I never really got in dire straits despite my poor start.