Part 47: Chapter Thirty Six: Nightmare Circus
Music: 11 – It’s a Whale000.png)
As I said previously, this cave is where the Uparupa makes its lair. As far as I know nobody ever tells you it’s here, you just have to stumble across it through exploration.
Music: 04 – Dungeon
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: Good thing we still have those things Petape gave us that let us breathe underwater.Naturally a new dungeon also means new enemy encounters. It bears mentioning that nearly every enemy here is weak to fire, so Heckler’s weapons will work wonders.
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Sirens can cast Cyclone on single targets and can also use Dream Breath. They like to appear in pairs and can really ruin your day if they manage to put most of your party to sleep. Thankfully they aren’t too tough.
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Stingers are an odd beast. They do nothing except heal themselves for 40 HP constantly, which would be more useful if every hit against them didn’t do around 150 damage. They have a small chance of dropping a Warlock Ring, but other than that they aren’t very interesting.
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Fallen Elves can be an annoyance. They attack twice per turn due to Combo Attack and have a high chance of scoring a critical hit. They can also cast Silence on your party, although that’s more of an annoyance than anything else. They often appear as flunkies for other enemies.
Anyway, on with the game.
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Inside the northern cave lies a weapon for Lin. There’s also another cave further to the north but it happens to be a dead end.
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The eastern path leads to an island with a treasure chest.
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We have accumulated a number of Coins by now. One day we’ll have to see about putting them to good use.
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Taking the southern door first is a very good idea.
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Mostly because it leads to a chest containing an Ocean Robe, which is a neat piece of armour for female characters.
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The northern door leads to this area full of Manillo.
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: Sure thing. It’s a small price to pay I guess.015.png)
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: Seems simple enough. Nabbing one shouldn’t be too hard since we have these Algerfruits.There’s also another Manillo who’ll try to sell you an Algerfruit for 1000 zenny. You may be thinking, “An Algerfruit right where the Uparupas live? What was the point of slogging through the Algernon fight then?” Don’t worry. There’s a reason.
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: This place is kinda creepy. There are bones everywhere, too…021.png)
There are no enemy encounters here, but there are many caves with bright shiny eyes staring out at you.
: Time to see if that Manillo’s advice was worth what we paid.022.png)
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: Guess now we just have to wait for ‘im.
: We will not be waiting long, monsieur Bosch! It has already been lured out by the fruit!025.png)
: Okay! Quickly, let’s capture it!026.png)
: Got him! Urgh, he’s not gonna go down easy though!--
Music: 10 – I’ll Do It!
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The Uparupa is a cakewalk, especially compared to Algernon and co. whom we fought previously. Although physically powerful, resilient and able to counterattack any physical attack made against it, the Uparupa has low HP and will die after one round as long as Ryu busts out a Dragon attack.
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Unfortunately, the game decides to pull a colossal dick move out of nowhere here. You see, only two of the eight Uparupas in this room can be caught. The rest just vanish into a puff of bullshit-scented smoke after the fight. So if you decided to just buy the Manillo’s bait there’s an excellent chance that you’ll blow it on an uncatchable one.
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This Uparupa hole contains one of the catchable Uparupas.
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It is very important to let the Uparupa go. “But!” I hear you cry. “We went through quite a lot of bullshit to catch this critter! Why let it go now, after all that?”
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Because.
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It will then give you a chest.
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With the goddamn Buster Sword inside.
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Yeah. Now that we’ve stolen weapons from Final Fantasy VII, you’d think it’d be time to move on. But no; there’s one final goody in here. If you exit this room, then re-enter…
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…The chest is full again.
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The Defender is a good shield that raises Ryu’s defence into the triple digits. Not bad at all. Also all the Uparupas have skedaddled, but that’s not a problem. We can complete this little quest without one.
Skipping back to the circus…
Music: Salad Toss Show
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: Me and the gang have been thinking. We’ve been thinking that you’re a bloodthirsty psycho and we’re not going to stand for any of your bullshit. So just release the Grassman to us right now and we can forget this ever happened.
: You sure don’t know the meaning of ‘compromise’, do you, kid?: Not when it comes to dealing with psychotic idiots like you. Ryu, this guy’s got the same look in his eye that Argus did. I reckon he’s another one of those monsters.039.png)
: Here he comes!040.png)
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The Ringmaster isn’t as overwhelmingly deadly as Algernon but he still packs a serious punch. His basic attack can hit for around 70 – 80 damage, even against Ryu. He also has pretty beefy HP and can hit the entire party with a variant of the Quake spell, only his hits everyone for exactly 48 damage every time. This battle is a damage race and it’s possible to lose if you don’t pay attention, since him hitting two party members in a row is guaranteed to KO them unless you healed them up between rounds.
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: D-don’t laugh…Don’t you laugh at me! Can’t you see…it’s not funny? Geh…heh…043.png)
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: This is getting ridiculous…: Yeah. Makes you wonder how many there really are out there.045.png)
: Now…how do we get this thing open?046.png)
: Don’t bother trying to open that. The cage bars are just for show. The real door is over on this side.047.png)
: Hey! Are you makin’ fun of us or something?: Yeah! We went through all that crap when you could have just walked out the door whenever? That’s pretty out of order.048.png)
: You see…I’ve been waiting for you. Or people like you, in other words.: People…like us? Pardon, I do not understand…049.png)
: Something evil is about to emerge in this world, and only a chosen few can stop it.050.png)
: The forest near Gate has perished, and the cause is unclear.051.png)
: Actually yeah, we were just about to ask you if you knew anything about that.: The trees bring me word from distant lands, wherever green things grow. But evil covers the forest near Gate like a black cloud.052.png)
: That’s a big problem. We were really hoping that you could help us figure things out.: There…may be a way.053.png)
: The Elder Tree knows everything that happens in his forests, however far away. We must hurry, though…I fear we may already be too late.054.png)
: Hold up a minute. How do we find this ‘Elder Tree’ anyway? I mean, it’s a tree…and it’s old…I guess…: To find the Elder Tree, we must journey west to the Sea of Green. If I lead the way, the forest will allow us to pass through.055.png)
Aaaand that seems like a good place to stop. I’ll do the usual thing of looking into Aspara’s abilities and such next time.