Part 4: This One Has A Zelda Reference

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Breath of Death VII, we completed another Bonus Cave and recruited Lita, a gun wielding vampire. Today, we're going to go through a dungeon and learn a bit more about what the hell we're actually going to be doing for the game, so let's dance.





Since I cut things in the middle, we start almost immediately with a battle.



Against some Lost Souls. They're basically fodder enemies meant to waste some time.



I remember nothing intimidating about them, but they have a good amount of health, I guess.



Lita's starting Handgun automatically deals two hits, but she doesn't have much power to do that with.





She fulfills a sort of Black Mage role in the party. I'm not sure if I've ever used Sleep in this game.





Being a vampire, she can drain enemy health to refill some of hers, if need be. The power isn't super impressive right now, but 54 HP would be a nice bit of hers.





Lita is going to gain a good few levels in this update.



Alright, I like the Earth element. That's a good bit of power, too, and not too expensive.



This is the same thing, but only in Electric flavor. I go with Bury Alive, since I don't think the Earth element is properly represented in RPGs.





Get used to this broken town; it's like if Silent Hill had some kind of a stroke.



Those trees are impassable, since we have to have some sort of obstacles and broken houses just weren't enough.







I'm not all that crazy about this dungeon. There's nothing bad about it, not exactly, but it has the problem of being...Well, kind of boring.



There's just not much going on, visually, to make it interesting. I know with the art style, that's not going to be something that can please everyone, but it feels a little uninspired.







Okay, I like the sound of that. Spend some MP and now I'm doing 1/4 more damage? Excellent.



Or, for free and active at all times, I can give everyone a 10% boost, without having to use up on of Dem's turns, when he could be bashing faces. I take this one, much for the same reasons as to why I took the passive boost to Defense.







Well, Lita could use the extra HP, since she's a bit flimsy.



Buuuuut, she excels at magic based attacks, so I take this option.



I also equip her with the Shotgun, since now I can hit all enemies on screen, for free. It won't outright kill anything, but it'll soften them up enough that Dem and Sara can finish them off without too much trouble.



Plus, Shotguns are cool.



I picked up the new Doom, and I've used the shotgun more than any other weapon. I just can't wait to get my hands on the super shotgun.



That's why this update has been a little later than you'd expect. I'm really enjoying the new Doom.







Rusty Bones are Dem's Cheeto-colored cousins.



With 150 HP, they have a bit of staying power, but nothing too extraordinary.



This is the Shotgun in action.







Not bad. She's already hitting pretty hard, and this would make it even better.



But Hailstorm is also pretty powerful, and this will boost that up even more. I go with the Magic boost, but maybe the Strength would have been good, too.



That's one thing I like about this game's leveling system; there really aren't any choices that are clearly better than the other. It comes down to play style for a lot of those choices; I make mine based on what will boost the combo count the best, which has worked out well for me in the past, but if you want to do it the other way, then that will work out, too.



You're not punished for playing the way you want to; you have some freedom to build these characters as you'd like to, but without making them cookie cutter copies of each other.



Yeehaw. Since we now have three people to potentially buy gear for, extra money is always appreciated.



And I'll never turn down a level up.



Okay, not bad, and still part of that element I feel is underrepresented.



But, since I took the Earth choice last time, I may as well take the Electric choice this time. It's nice to diversify your elements, if possible.







Thinking about it, I'm not sure how the bottom half of this house is torn to shit, with a chasm in the middle of it, while the upstairs is perfectly intact.





Here's a little shot of Lightning doing its thing. It's kind of expensive, at 18 MP, but it does hit all enemies. We don't have much else that can do that.



On the next screen, it's just more destroyed city.









Oh, good, something to talk about.



Alright, this is important.



But, so this this. Lita is pretty fragile, so that Vitality is a good thing, and making her faster and more resistant to magic damage is also good, so I take this option.









Jeesh, it's like trying to talk about one of the mazes in Secret of Evermore...



To get here, we had to wing around a destroyed house and some trees.





I'm now curious about the tech level in this world. Lita uses guns and studies technology, but outside of this town, it's been swords, staves, and clubs for offensive weaponry.



Just once in a video game, I'd like a firearm to be the weapon of destruction it would be in comparison to swords and axes. There's probably a game that's done it, but on a pedantic level, it bothers me that guns are just as strong, if not a little weaker, than swords.







Oh, shit, new enemies!



Nah, just joshin' you. Just a level up.



Ignores Defense, you say? Well, what is my alternative?



Ah, the same thing, but at a higher power, but without Defense ignoring properties. I go with the ignorance properties, since that could be very valuable, later on.



To make things better, we make another 500 Gold for doing nothing!









I take the boost to Strength and Agility; Dem needs all the the speed he can get, since he's sorely lacking in Agility.





Heal would be able to revive fallen teammates; good to have around.



Or we could boost the shit out of its healing power. Both still break the combo, but if I need to revive someone, a Potion will do the job just as well, and without breaking the combo. I take the highly increased Healing power.







In a surprise twist, instead of exiting to the north, we exit to the east. Possibly exiting through a gift shop.



A save point! We're close to the end!





We'll be coming back to head up those stairs. I could have (and should have) gone up them right now, but I couldn't remember what was up there.





There is a new enemy this time. No foolsies.



The Devil Looter is an upgraded Looter. Something I didn't mention before is that when their health is low, the Looter enemies have a chance to just run the hell away, instead of sticking around for the end of the fight (and their deaths).



Pfft. Lita has more HP than these guys.









I'm trying to find ways to not insult your intelligence and show you where we're going; I'm sure you realized I went left and around to get up here.



In areas like this, where it all looks very similar and is a glorified maze, it's sometimes hard to know what is best to show and what can be left to the audience's assumption.



Getting to that chest takes some time and a bit of effort.





To get to a chest that was fifteen feet away, we have to cross a hundred feet of city and go back across, and then open the chest.





That's the exit to the boss right there.



To get to that chest, we have to cross below the trees.



And then we go through another destroyed house.



To find a chest that gives us the same amount of Gold that we've already found. We're doing pretty good on money at the moment.





Now, that's not a bad combination of stats for Lita.



But, I like this better. She's not got great Agility, but her Vitality is what is going to get her ass killed.



Alright, let's get back to those stairs.





Were I a dick, I'd have shown the trip back.







Though, it's not just as easy as crossing the house and going down some steps.



We've gotta walk a little farther.





We had the chance to buy one of these back in town.



In case you'd forgotten what it did, and why I didn't equip it and take off the Strong Ring, here's why. Sara is going to get smashed one way or the other, but with the extra Strength, combined with her high Agility, she can do some smashing, and with two Hits, that's a nice amount of smashing.



Alright, let's get back and finish this dungeon.







I think I made a mistake on this one. See that Combo Boost attached to this skill? It would grow stronger, the higher the combo count.



This doesn't have it, but it offers two more hits, to help boost our combo count. In hindsight, I should have taken the other Fire Flurry, but too late now. At least I can add five to my combo count, to make Deathblow stronger.



It's still one of those moments, though.



Made even worse by the fact I caught it on camera and posted it for the Internet to see.



But, enough about that shit, we've got a boss fight!



The Junk Monster isn't too terribly scary, but there is a gimmick to this fight.



800 HP seems like a lot, but if we had all three characters whaling on his ass, it would disappear in the blink of an eye.



Though, with the two Ghost Cars, Hailstorm can't be as effective as it could be.





Sniper Shot ignoring Defense is a pretty nice thing, since you know exactly what the enemy is going to take from it.



Here's the aforementioned gimmick; as you destroy the Ghost Cars, the Junk Monster will rebuild them, and cripple itself.



But, glance up at my combo count. You know what time it is?



time.









Oooh!



Yeah, I go the magic route here.







And the choice is between extra HP/MP and extra stats. I go with the stats, as per my usual.



And here's the update title!





What the hell are you talking about, Sara?



We just finished kicking the shit out of this--



Thank you, Dem, but she can't hear you.



And Sara can't be trusted to accurately represent your thoughts!





This sounds kind of familiar...



I personally prefer to think of this as a recreation of The Devil Went Down To Georgia, but with vampires, robots, and more gunplay.





: Did you figure out how to fix it?

: No, the robot's too far gone to repair. However, listen to this. Someone tampered with this robot before it attacked us. Yup, here's your problem. Someone set this thing to Evil.



Why does that setting exist!?



: them to a certain location in the desert badlands.

: Large ruined city surrounded by mountains...That must be referring to the city of Langsong! Hey, Dem! Let's go to Langsong and look for those crystals! It's a big ruin, so we're sure to find more secrets of the past! Besides, we owe it to Mr. Robot to fulfill his mission since we destroyed him.



I agree with this, but what the hell else do we have to do?





The reference here is pretty obvious; Mother and Earthbound, two quirky RPGs, are combined. The games were known as Mother in Japan, but when the sequel to Mother came overseas, the title was changed to Earthbound.





A Water Cave, you say? Maybe that Lightning spell will come in handy in there...







But, enough about that. We're going to take a break here, but next time, we'll be going through the Water Cave. Maybe we'll even make it to Motherbound.

Stay tuned to find out!

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