Part 12: Experimental Unit

Update 12: Experimental Unit

Welcome back. Last time we began our journey into the depths of the BioCorp Labs. This update we’ll be continuing our exploration and hopefully uncovering the truth about Nina.

Music: BioCorp







The third level of BioCorp looks much the same as the others, although we do encounter a Goo Plasma that thinks it can ambush us by clinging to the ceiling.



It really should have stayed at home.



Through the next door is a huge chamber full of broken specimen tubes and various flavours of Goo.



In amongst them is a new variety of Goo, the blue Goo Sapphire. As their names and colour imply, Goo Sapphires are the ice variant and will attack with Frost and Iceblast.



The room also contains two of these strange louse-like enemies. They aren’t aggressive and will run away when you get close.



These little guys are Kanaphages. They’re tougher than they look and attack twice per round, but that’s not what makes them special.



Like many enemies in Dragon Quarter, Kanaphages have a gimmick. In this case it’s that their bodies are made of solid gold, and every attack made against them causes part of it to flake off.



The fewer attacks you make against them, the greater the payout you receive afterwards, with the maximum amount being 10,000 zenny for killing them in one hit.





As things are right now though we’re lucky to break 1,000. Anything higher pretty much requires New Game+.









Past the big room we enter a new segment of the third floor labs.





Our only way forward is across another walkway going past the same enormous genic we saw earlier. If you look closely you’ll see it’s actually a huge version of the Armstrong enemy we fought at the end of the previous update.



Like the ones on the floor below, this walkway is guarded by several large flies. These ones are a bit more of a threat, however.



We’ve fought regular Buzzes. Now meet the Queen Buzz.



Unlike their lesser bretheren Queen Buzzes can poison us right off the bat.





They also have an attack called Powder that has a chance of inflicting Blind on all party members within the area of effect. Blind does what it usually does in RPGs and reduces hit rate to near zero.







Queen Buzzes are also fairly tough and lack their underlings’ weakness to fire. They are vulnerable to Bind though, so Lin’s special combos are pretty helpful.



They also drop Longfoots, which is another plus.







The next corridor ends in two doors, with the map indicating that one of them leads onto another walkway.







Said walkway leads to a small room with two gold crates. In my case they contained 500 Party XP and an unidentified shield.





The other door leads to this small area. Going through this door triggers a fairly important cutscene.





The party walks into the lab.



Suddenly, Nina runs over to the observation window.

Music: Sorrowful Memories









Nina seems disturbed by the sight of the operating theatre, but the sound of a door opening prevents Ryu from asking what’s wrong.



: Can I help you?





: Didn’t we ship that one out already?



Nina trembles and shakes her head violently as the scientist looks at her.



:…Genic? Shipped?







: You’ve got to take better care of these!







Ryu’s confusion and anger are clear, but Lin simply looks away. It’s obvious she’s already figured out what Nina’s true purpose is.



: You have to understand…



: Ah!



: I spent a lot of time making this one, I did!



: This is a top of the line anti-pollutant model! And my best work so far, I might add.



So, that’s the awful truth. Nina isn’t a human being. She’s a biological air purifier commissioned by the rich elites running Sheldar to make sure they don’t choke to death on their own filth. Those red protrusions from her back aren’t wings, but bioengineered tumours designed to suck polluted air directly into her lungs, which have themselves been surgically modified to act as filtration units. She is a genic, less than human, less than a Low-D, a disposable thing cursed to die a slow, painful death as her body gradually fills with toxic waste.







Needless to say, Ryu is less than thrilled to hear about this.



: The lungs are already at a terminal stage. We can’t replace them either.







The scientist’s glasses go flying as Ryu decides to let his fists do the talking.





: Nina’s a ‘she’! She’s human! What have you done to her?!







: The…the prototype wasn’t designed for durability.



:…before the filters fail.



:…where the air is clean?

: The air here gets worse every day. If ‘she’ stays in an environment like this much longer…





Ryu’s sword hand trembles. He’s clearly struggling not to murder the scientist then and there.

: You people are sick!



Luckily, Nina’s on hand to calm him down again.



: Alright. Let’s go, Nina.







This is an important scene, and not just for the obvious revelation about Nina. Up until now the party hasn’t really had an overarching objective. All of our goals so far - Ryu escorting the cargo, the struggle to escape EndSector, the push through BioCorp - have been strictly short term. We’ve been reacting to things that have happened rather than working towards a particular goal.

This scene marks the first time the main goal of the game is spelled out clearly. Climb up through the shelter’s many levels and reach the sky. Why do this? So that a young girl doesn’t choke to death on Sheldar’s filthy air. It’s a modest goal, especially compared to previous games in the series, but definitely a worthwhile endeavour.



The game gives us back control, and we find ourselves standing over the asshole scientist responsible for everything. We can talk to him for more information about Nina’s condition.



: With the overall pollution level, it’s only a matter of time…



Aside from that there’s not much else here. We can go into the operating theatre, but there’s nothing of any interest in there, so let’s move on through the only other door.









The fourth floor of the labs goes back to Dragon Quarter’s usual linearity, being essentially one long square-shaped corridor with two other rooms in total.



The Patrollers make a return, with two of the bastards skulking near the elevator.



The little room here contains the floor’s treasure chest.



If you kill the Patrollers the Bouncers will spawn in the next corridor over. There’s pretty much no way to slip by them, but they’re spread out enough that you can take them out piecemeal fairly easily.



This little corner looks empty, but a glance at the minimap reveals that an enemy is lurking there.



Attacking reveals an invisible Goo Element chilling near the crate.



Killing it causes the Treasure Key to materialise.



The key itself appears in the adjacent room, where another Patroller lurks.





The treasure chest contains another backpack!



Past where the Treasure Key spawned we come to another corridor full of Bouncers. Usual tactics apply, string them out and they aren’t much of a threat.





Music: Waste Shaft





Something is different about the fifth floor of the labs. The music changes, and the air takes on a cold, bluish tint.



The fifth floor is actually really tiny. The large door to Ryu’s right leads to the next area, but we don’t want to go there just yet.



Continuing on brings us to a small room with the three vendors and save point, all of them much-needed.



I’m especially grateful for the chance to offload all the useless Lightning Skill Items the Bouncers kept dropping. Those things were cluttering up the inventory something fierce.



In terms of identification we find a whole lot of elemental weapons for Ryu, along with a Strong Sword+3.



The Strong Sword is slightly weaker than the Buster Sword, but more than makes up for it with a delicious two free Lv. 3 skill slots. It and the Plasma Maser will serve us well in the next area.



We also identify two shields for Lin. The Astral Ribbon might be useful at some point, but the Bangle is pure garbage since it doesn’t let you thread skills to it.



Arma has some nice but expensive items on sale. All of them would be nice, but I wind up buying the Ice Gear and Iceproof armours for Ryu and Lin respectively. As their names imply, these armours reduce ice damage by half, and having them will make getting through the next area much easier.



I spend the remainder of our cash on healing items. You can never, ever have too many of them.



With our shopping done it’s time to move on to the next area.





The icy atmosphere intensifies as the sterile halls of BioCorp give way to rough-hewn rock.





This looks like a T-Junction, but we can’t go through this door.





At the end of the path we find a ladder leading upwards.



It leads to the next area, which makes it the perfect place to stop. Until next time.

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Bonus Art: Nina Concept Art