Part 32: That Fucking Bird

Video: Milly Panics


Oh, that's right! You've been to Anuenue before, haven't you, Milly.

Uh-huh. I used to attend the School of Magic here.

I thought you said you were a sheltered girl who had never seen the outside world?

Well...I was. My trips to and from the school were chaperoned. I traveled by ship – but they never let me look outside even once! All I saw were my bedroom and the school. Room-ship-school-ship-room. That's how it went every single day.

...Oh.

Hey, um...Milly. What's school like, anyway? I wouldn't really know.

You just study...a lot. The School of Magic is supposed to be for people who care about continuing their education. But I wasn't like that at all. Sure, I did the work and learned the lessons...but what I really wanted was to see all the things I'd read about with my own two eyes. So I ran away...

Maybe you didn't want to study, Milly – but I'm glad you did.

Huh?

I mean, you're super smart, and that's been a huge help.

R-Really? You think I'm smart? Oh, I don't know...Hee hee hee...

Please! Stop that offensive giggling.


What a cute little scene – only to be interrupted by a sudden shake!





Music: The Dead-End Creatures


All the way out here? Can't we shoot it down?

No, miss! The Sfida's not equipped with a weapons system. We'll just have to try to outfly them -





Damn! They knocked out the propulsion system! We're going down!







Music: Holoholobird


We regain control of Sagi at this point, and need to talk to Milly, Guillo, and the Sfida Attendant to progress.

There's also a save flower here, in case you feel like saving. I really hope you saved on a different file here or on the disc change save. Multiple saves are a good thing.





I...I'm sorry. It took all I had just to set us down in one piece. When I think of what might have happened if we'd been flying over a city...





What?! No! I'm fine. Really. You can stop staring already!

Oh, uh, I-I'm sorry...





Sagi, how long have we been together? This was nothing. How about yourself?

Oh, I'll be fine. I thought we might be history for a minute there, though.





Where are we?

Hey, hold on! This is the Holoholo Jungle! Oh no. This is bad. Really, really bad.

What's wrong, Milliarde? Is it...bad?

Shut up, dingbat!

Seriously, what's wrong, Milly? Is this place dangerous or something?

They say that even the most seasoned travelers get lost in this jungle. You need this rock called a landmark stone that's been bewitched by the headmaster of the School of Magic – otherwise you can never escape!

I get it. Hmm, that is bad.

How can you be so calm, dummy! Go ahead, kick back while you rot to death – but I'm not ready to turn into Holoholo compost, YOU GOT ME?

Uh...OK. Why don't we calm down a little? I'm sure there's a way out.


A horrible sound comes from somewhere distressingly close by...


Ah! Oh no oh no...Was that a Holoholobird?! We can't let it find us, or else -







Ooh...Why do I bother getting mad? The Holoholobird carries its young when it goes hunting for food.

Oh.

Which means, it's HUNTING FOR FOOD RIGHT NOW!

Stop arguing! This isn't the time! Get your magnus ready!







Video: Cluck

Music: Evidential Material


In Baten Kaitos, there are some bosses that are harder than others. Some spoken about in hushed tones, and never at night. Bosses used to scare children into submission and fill the proud with terror. And of those bosses, one stands out above all the rest.

This is the Holoholobird.





Admittedly, the Holoholobird isn't that bad all by itself. But Guillo and Milly were right – it brought its spawn along for the battle, and the combination is decidedly lethal.





The chicks are a major annoyance for a couple of reasons. Their attack strings can do anywhere form 100-350 damage. Not overwhelming, but just enough to be a threat on top of the Holoholobird's own attacks.

Furthermore, their attacks consist of five to fifteen individual hits, so they tear through defense magnus uses like nobody's business. I'm not using those, but they rip through my Warrior's Scarf uses to, so it's still a bit of a problem.







Meanwhile, the Holoholobird itself can do around 400 damage to one person, or use Wingflail and nail the whole party with about 350 damage plus knockdown.





I started off by killing one of the chicks, then shifted over to the main boss...









...to demonstrate that the Holoholobird can shit out new chicks when you defeat them. So that's horrible. The only good news is that it takes a while for the egg to hatch and you can damage it during that time, so you can weaken or outright kill the chick before it gets to do anything.

Now, the obvious solution is to take out the momma so it can't spawn any more chicks, right? Let's give that a try.





Oh, the Warrior's Scarf is great for this fight. It's always nice to keep someone standing after Wingflail to run damage control if needed.





I've mentioned True Heaven's Glacier a couple times now, but I don't think I've properly explained it. It's currently the strongest attack I have. This is an EX Combo, a combination of attacks that combine to do much more damage than their individual parts would suggest.

In this case, Sagi needs to use

Weak attack A
Medium Attack A
Strong attack B
Heavenfall
Icebloom
Rime Blade

This is why it's important to have both A and B attacks in the deck – they are vital for many of these superattacks.





So Sagi's THG and Milly and Guillo's less important but still appreciated attacks total out at 3446 damage. Not enough to kill the bird, but enough to hit it pretty hard. The fight's almost over by now I bet -





Except that the chicks can heal the mommy.

So the mom can make new chicks, and the chicks can heal the mom. It's a vicious cycle of life and even more life, and all for the side of this fight that needs to lose for me to progress.



Bear in mind – this fight comes out of nowhere. We left Alfard, got a save prompt, switched discs, crash landed, and all of the sudden this bird attacks us. There's no reason to see it coming. At least in BKEWLO the game dropped numerous hints that you were about to get into trouble when you left for the Goldoba. Here, not only do you get no warning, you can't even do any grinding for materials or levels or anything. You just get thrown right into this. And it's not just any boss, but the hardest boss yet.

So what I'm getting at here is that the Goldoba could maybe be chalked up to iffy game design, but this is the designers straight up trolling the player.





I have THG almost set up again, but I'm in pretty dire straits and I still need to dig up Sagi's weapon before I can pull it off effectively. Will I succeed?









Goddamn right I succeed.







Of course, the fight's not over until you kill off any remaining chicks. I just want to draw attention to the fact that Sagi died at some point during this phase. It's not terribly likely, but you could very well kill the momma and still die to her spawn. Just a thought.







You know that Iconoclast wine I bought months ago? I'm downing that whole damn thing tonight in celebration of my victory.





You certainly won't go hungry if we end up stranded here. It might even taste like clucker. Not that I'd know the difference.

Stop that. We can't just sit around, or Shanath and his goons will get a head start. Let's find some way out of this place.

I should stay here and try to repair the Sfida. You continue the operation, Master Sagi. I'll have her up and running before you can say, “Mission Complete!”

Thanks, I appreciate it.


I like the Sfida Attendant. He's friendly and helpful.

...He's also completely wrong about getting this thing fixed in any decent amount of time. But that leads into one of the better parts of Anuenue, so we'll look past that for now.









Phew! I'm so glad that's over with...Join me next time as we try to find a way out of this place.