Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter Part #9

Part 9: The Long Way Home

Update 09: The Long Way Home

Welcome back. Last time we took a closer look at the mechanics behind Ryu’s Dragon transformation and started our journey up towards LowSector Borough.

Music: Lift

Zooming back to where we began, there’s one more area we need to explore before heading upstairs.

Heading down the second set of stairs leads us to a new area.

It’s not a particularly big area, just an empty siding with a narrow corridor leading to a room with an Adult Rustphage and a golden item crate.

In this case the crate contains a hefty chunk of Party XP. The room itself borders onto the treasure room, and if we’d come here earlier we could have seen the Death Cow and its Beak companion frolicking in the background.

I make a brief stop to sell off anything we don’t need and stock up on Heal Kits. It’s a pretty long climb, and there are some tough enemies lying in wait on the floors above.

Climbing up leads to an open area with several Duke genics chilling on a raised area to the east.

Fortunately for us ground-based enemies in this game are very lazy and can’t be bothered to jump down the two foot ledge to come and fight us. Still, we’re going to have to fight these guys sooner or later so we may as well start now.

The enemy group consists of two Duke Hunters and two new variants, the Duke Magi.

As you might expect, the Duke Magi are spellcasters. They attack by casting Flare, the fire equivalent of Jolt.

The Duke Hunters are the same as ever, spamming skills that push our party members back.

Being bunched so closely together makes them an easy target for Nina’s spells however.

Killing them all causes the treasure key to appear, which is handy since the treasure chest itself is right there. We can’t get to it just yet, but we will soon.

We managed to steal Flare during the battle. Like I said, it’s the fire equivalent of Jolt.

The next room is also full of Dukes.

A few explosives to soften them up, then some bait to lure them in. Dragon Quarter pre-battle manoeuvres 101.

This battle introduces another new Duke variant, the Duke Lancer. Duke Lancers are tanky physical attackers whose spears give them a long reach. They have a special attack called Stinger that can hit multiple party members in a straight line.

They tend to drop HP Plus items, so engaging them is very worthwhile.

The next room contains a rather interesting enemy.

This guy with his back to us is a Trickster.

Tricksters won’t engage you, but will run away as soon as you get too close. If you don’t chase them down they will run out of sight and despawn.

It is absolutely worth engaging them, however. They have very poor defence and go down incredibly quickly.

Tricksters always drop a Zennypurse, a vendor trash item worth 300 zenny. Very nice.

That’s not all this room has to offer. Turning around reveals an enormous Duke Battler sleeping nearby. Duke Battlers are very tough enemies and it’s perfectly acceptable to sneak past and leave this one to its nap.

But of course, doing that means missing out on some nice loot and experience.

The first thing you need to know about Duke Battlers is how tough they are. I lobbed every bomb in my inventory at this one and it only knocked off about a fifth of its total health.

The second thing you need to know is that every Duke Battler comes equipped with tough armour that resists direct physical damage. This armour will break after enduring an indeterminate number of physical attacks, but while it’s intact Ryu’s sword is rendered mostly ineffective.

In terms of offense Duke Battlers wield giant halberds that do heavy damage and have a very long reach. They counterattack pretty much every time you hit them and can use Spiritcharge to power up their attacks.

They can also use Stinger to hit multiple party members, which can be a nasty surprise if you accidentally leave Nina too close as I did here.

Fighting these guys is a damage race. If you don’t have a lot of healing items you’re probably better off sneaking past.

However, if you manage to kill the Duke Battler without breaking his armour he’ll drop it when he dies.

You can also steal the Counter skill item during the fight. Counter is a shield skill that lets Ryu and Lin automatically retaliate after taking physical damage. It’s an okay skill, but Steal is so much better it’s really not worth switching it out.

In amongst the crates we also find an AP Plus, which permanently increases a character’s AP by 1. I use it on Ryu since it guarantees him at least one more basic attack.

Heading north leads us to the ledge with the treasure box, which contains a skill for Lin.

Blow Up! is Lin’s first Lv. 3 Skill. Fairly useful if you can get a bunch of enemies grouped up together.

Beyond this room are the stairs up to the third floor.

After walking down a surprisingly neat and uncluttered corridor we come to a large room with a dead Duke lying on a counter.

You’ve got to be careful here, because the ceiling is crawling with Black Widows, the Bind Spider’s bigger, meaner and poisonous cousin.

As you can see, I was not careful.

Black Widows have around 300 hit points, so they’re reasonably tough. As seen in a previous screenshot you can also steal Poisonshrooms from them.

Here’s Lin’s Blow Up! Skill in action. It does decent damage even against single targets.

Fighting the Black Widow also draws in a Goo Element that was hiding on the other side of the counter.

The terrain works in our favour since the Goo can’t attack us, but Nina’s spells can hurt it. I don’t think I’ve shown off her regular Flare spell yet, so here it is.

Killing the enemies causes the Treasure Key to appear behind the counter. There are also some gold crates with unidentified equipment in them.

After crossing a raised walkway we find the treasure chest for this floor.

Rust Armour is a debuffing attack that lowers an enemy’s defence. A mere 5% decrease isn’t nearly enough to be worth it though.

This door leads to another walkway that sends us back to where the Treasure Key spawned. There’s no reason to go back there unless you enjoy being ambushed by a pair of Black Widows in a place where you have very little room to manoeuvre.

There are several crates in this area, although only one of them has anything useful in it.

Magic Boost temporarily increases magic power by 25%.

After a short corridor we stumble across yet another of Sheldar’s many abandoned freight lines.

Or not so abandoned, as going onto the tracks reveals a Duke Battler snoozing on the opposite siding.

Not coincidentally there are also three free Heal Kits nearby.

As with the other Duke Battler, it’s possible to sneak past this one without triggering a battle. In this case it’s doubly advisable since there’s a very tough encounter coming up very soon.

But I like to live dangerously, so it’s bombs away!

I wind up chucking everything at it, including my Poisonshroom.

Here’s what happens when you break a Duke Battler’s armour. Their defence drops to pretty much zero, at which point a couple of slices are enough to do them in.

Past the Duke Battler are three more free Heal Kits, which we will be making good use of very soon.

The next corridor contains an Odd Hychee.

I try to shoot it down with Lin, but her field attacks don’t seem to work on things that are on the ceiling.

Once it drops down though she nails it effortlessly.

Now that we have Flare we can easily toast these guys, making them drop delicious Trauma Kits.

The encounter I was talking about earlier is beyond this door. Deep breaths…

Music: Imminent Crisis

This gloomy chamber is without a doubt the hardest Danger Room we’ve faced thus far.

The Duke Mafia are fed up with Ryu chopping up their fellows and have sent a hit squad of two Duke Magi, two Duke Lancers and two Duke Battlers to break his kneecaps.

Needless to say, taking on all of these guys at once is suicide. The correct strategy is to divide and conquer, luring individual Dukes away from the pack and dealing with them one by one.

Despite my best efforts however the two Duke Battlers and one of the Duke Lancers simply won’t take the bait and I’m forced to fight them together.

We’re familiar with Duke Battlers by now, but that doesn’t mean we can afford to underestimate them, especially when we’re dealing with two of them at once.

Having lots of healing items is essential in this fight, since Ryu will be enduring many counterattacks on top of the Battler’s normal damage output.

Nina’s runes are also essential. Enemies lose some of their AP every time they hit one. Combine this with the fact that enemies can’t move through one another and a few strategically placed G-Flares will make it very hard for the Battlers to get into melee range.

Skills that reduce movement or inflict Bind are also useful, although it’s hard to get the latter to stick.

As a quick aside, here’s what Blow Up! looks like when it affects multiple enemies.

It’s a tough fight, but with careful planning and some good healing items it’s possible to scrape through.

As usual, clearing the Danger Room grants us a Treasure Key along with all the other goodies the Dukes left behind.

The treasure chest is in this very room, and it contains an extra Backpack! :dragontoot:

That’s five more item slots we have to play with!

The lift up to LowSector Borough is in the next room, but as soon as we step inside we’re treated to a cutscene.

Music: Ranger HQ

Hey, it looks like Bosch survived! The screen doesn’t show it well, but he’s actually shaking pretty hard. The encounter with Dragon Ryu has clearly left him a nervous wreck.