Part 63: Chapter Forty Seven: Trace Memory

Music: 04 – Dungeon



The Tower of memories is an interesting place with a number of gimmicks. First up, what’s with the weird circle surrounding our characters that obscures our vision of the dungeon?





In other words, that’s the puzzle for this floor.



I’m not sure if it’s a glitch or not, but after talking to the old man the screen becomes wholly visible again. The effect lasts until the first random encounter. It only works once and talking to the old man again won’t trigger it, even if you exit and then re-enter the dungeon.

Unlike the hodgepodge of enemies outside, Memory Tower has some new enemies to do battle with.



Power Eaters are nothing special as far as I’m aware. They do middling damage with their physical attacks and occasionally run away. Aside from that they’re pretty standard enemies.



Lord Slugs are dangerous foes who love to spam Jolt and Lightning at your party. Though frail they are also fast and can usually cast their spells before your party can react. Take these guys down as fast as possible.



Army Men are another enemy with insane physical defence. As usual Nina can bust out Slice to take them down.



There’s no way to get past the beginning of this dungeon without talking to this old man.



He’ll take us to the small chamber with the ladder leading up we saw when we came in. However, that’s not the only thing he can do…





The old man’s eyesight is so bad he’ll end up taking us to the treasure chests instead. The chests contain an Auto Bow, a weapon for Bosch that hits all enemies on the screen, and a set of Earth Armour.



Going back and taking the ladder up leads to another small room. The old man in here is worthless…



…But some clever positioning reveals a ladder near him.





Going all the way down and then left from the starting position leads to this chest with a Miso Stew in it. I feed it to Nina, since she’ll benefit most from the Wisdom increase.



Some fumbling around quickly reveals the path to the next ladder up.



It may look like there’s a door to the south in this room, but there isn’t. It’s another case of finding the next ladder up, and in such a small room it’s not hard even with the obfuscating circle.



The party ends up in this maze-like area.



It’s annoying but worthwhile to find all the treasure chests here.



The Courage Belt increases Attack by ten points. I immediately equip it on Ryu.



Alloy equipment is always welcome.



Thankfully there’s only one more floor after this.





All three old guys in this room say the same thing.



: The centre of the distortion lies within the next room. Be ready for anything.



: Huh? Another old man?

: Wait. That one is not a part of the Elder Tree. Reveal yourself, demon.



: Why have you done this? To destroy such a priceless store of knowledge and memories…what possible justification could you have?





: Oh, here it comes. The big old “Durr hurr I am evil and literally drink orphan’s tears.” speech. Same old, same o-





:…What? I’ve never…seen…wait a minute. You destroy memories and knowledge…no…it couldn’t be…

: Heh heh…yes…think back…

: It was you…you took away everyone’s memories of me, didn’t you?





: You…you…it was…all your doing…

: Hey, buddy! Keep it together!

The old man suddenly undergoes a demonic transformation!







:…I never forgot that day, you know. My father and sister vanishing and everyone forgetting who I was…it destroyed me. And now you turn up and declare proudly that it was your fault? Heh. You folks like to mouth off about your God, don’t you? Well now might be a good time to pray to him, because you just made this personal. After all this time I have a face to put my troubles to. I hope you’re ready to face a decade of anger and sorrow, monster!

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Music: 10 – I’ll Do It!



Alzheimer can be summed up with two words – wasted potential. He actually has a really cool gimmick in that he has an attack that causes your spellcasters to forget their magic, greying it out in the Special menu until the end of the fight. It’s done in increments from the latest spells to the earliest, slowly locking you out of your best magic.

The problem is that Alzheimer will happily spam this move for almost the entire fight. Since it causes no damage this means you can simply beat him to death with physical attacks with almost total impunity. He does have a physical attack that deals 50 – 60 damage but he uses it so rarely that it’s a complete nonissue.



--



: He grew up. Found friends who supported him. Became a better, stronger man than he thought he could ever be. Ironic, isn’t it? If you hadn’t erased everyone’s memories I wouldn’t even be here today. The fact that I’m standing here now is all thanks to you.





: It’s enough knowing you won’t be around to hurt people anymore.





: Thank you, Ryu. With the parasite destroyed the Elder Tree should have recovered at least some of his wits.

He has indeed – we can speak to the old men outside and they’ll have new things to say.



: I recall the story of the Dragon Warrior who led seven heroes to save the world from darkness…But the details…They are lost.



: But I also seem to remember that there is a master whom these demons serve, a being of illimitable wickedness…If only I could remember the name…



: The rise of a Dark God is an ominous portent…there is but one who could inspire such reverence among demons…



That’s all the old men have to say. There’s nothing more we can do for the Elder Tree, so it’s time to hop back to reality.





Until next time…