Part 83: Chapter Sixty One: Temple of Terror
Music: 21 – God of Decadence000.png)
Last time Rand’s mother Daisy made the ultimate sacrifice in order to save her son from Habalk’s trap. Now it’s up to us to chase him down and make him pay.
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The chest here contains a Blast Fist, a great new weapon for Rand.
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: Who the hell designed this place? The stupid architecture makes me want to do some renovations. With fireballs.
: No time for that, Habalk’s up ahead!003.png)
: Running around my great Cathedral in circles, desperately getting nowhere…you must be bored of it by now.004.png)
Choosing “I’ll take it!” will result in…nothing. Habalk will just let you waltz back down the stairs. He’ll repeat the question if you come back. You can exit Evrai and fly around on Mina doing sidequests and he’ll still be here when you come back. But we’re not here to run away, we’re here to punch his face in.
: You’re finished, Habalk. You can’t run forever.005.png)
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The party is thrust into battle with an Archer. Uh…I honestly don’t know what Habalk was thinking when he recruited this guy, he’s as weak as a normal encounter. We crush him into paste with no effort at all.
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: Why don’t you be a good boy and die?: We’ve never been good at being ‘good boys’, right partner?: You said it, buddy.009.png)
See above. This guy is toast.
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: Come back here, coward!!011.png)
Before we follow Habalk we have the opportunity to obtain a rather nice treasure.
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Walking across the lower ledge will cause the party to fall down.
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To the north is a small room with a chest containing a Skull Brace. The Skull Brace is an Accessory that boosts the critical hit chance of spells by 50%, which is amazing. It’s going right on Deis.
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Hey, we’re back at the start. From here we can go to the Inn, buy some items, fly away on Mina, anything. Habalk is a very polite evil mastermind and won’t move from his spot, because that would just be rude.
A few minutes of backtracking later…
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: Very well then! If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get!018.png)
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: Oh no ya don’t!020.png)
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We land in an area that looks suspiciously like a swastika. Or maybe a manji.
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The north eastern door leads to a chest with a Jewel Brace. The Jewel Brace is supposed to protect against Instant Death, but doesn’t work due to a bug.
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The western staircase leads back out of the Cathedral, so we take the northern door instead.
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The chest in here contains a Rainbow Robe, an excellent set of mage armour.
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Caution is advised in this room, since you can fall off the walkway and/or the platform and end up back in the previous room.
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The deal with this puzzle is that you direct the platform by stepping on the arrows to move it in that direction. You can only use each arrow once, however, and this means you have to fall down again if you want to grab the treasure.
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It’s a Crimson Cape, good armour for Bosch that also raises Vigour.
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: Be careful. There is a strange energy in this place. Something evil is lurking inside the next room.: Bring it on.031.png)
:…? Did anyone else hear that?: Hear what?: It sounded like a man’s voice…032.png)
Oh boy, these things. The eyeball things on the ledges are this area’s defence system. When you pass by them…
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They blast you with lasers, as video game eye statues are wont to do. Each shot takes off 30 damage and they hit every party member as they file past.
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: There’s definitely someone in here! Come on! We have to help them!035.png)
There are three more pairs of eyes after the first set. Luckily I came packing a lot of Vitamins so I can heal up all the damage.
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: Hey…this control panel is just like the one in Fort Nageur! Now let’s see…we press this button here, and…038.png)
Music: The Demon
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: Wha…what the hell is this?!: It’s like the thing in Highfort, only…eviller…: That device is feeding off the old man…siphoning his energy to power itself…040.png)
:…Is it possible you have come to kill me? Can it be? Have you come to finally free me from this accursed contraption?041.png)
: What?! No! We have to get you out of there!042.png)
A klaxon begins to belt out an alarm as the screen flashes red.
: No! The defence system has engaged! There’s no time! You must kill me, now! This machine uses me as a conduit to send energy to the Dark God! 043.png)
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: Argh!!: Dammit!: There’s…something about that guy…something…046.png)
:…!! No! Whatever you do, don’t hit the old man!!--
Music: 29 – Dramatic Battle
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The battle this time is against the three Guardeyes and the Old Man. Each of the three Guardeyes serves a different function. The right-hand eye will cast Vitalize to heal the others for 120 HP each, so it should be your first target. The middle eye will spam Fireblast continuously throughout the fight, and the left-hand eye will cast Iceblast on a single target. The Old Man will do nothing except occasionally beg for you to kill him.
First and foremost, if you want to meet one of the requirements for the Good Ending it is imperative that you not kill the Old Man. That means your shiny new Kaiser Dragon attack can’t be used. The game also pulls a dick move in that the targeting defaults to the Old Man, so if your finger slips then you can wind up hurting him by accident. Also, since any queued attacks reroute to the default target if their current one is killed it means you have to be very careful how much firepower you bring to bear on each eye.
Luckily the Old Man can survive a few hits and has several hundred HP, so it’s not like hitting him once or twice will be the end of things. The best strategy is to have Bosch copy the enemy’s strategy of Vitalizing every turn to keep up with the damage spam and to have Ryu be your main attacker. Single-target spells are a must – no spamming Inferno in this fight, sadly enough.
--
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The machine powers down and the old man levers himself out of it.
: You amaze me…I didn’t expect you would be able to stop the machine and rescue me from its grip…049.png)
Celebrations are cut short, however, because the ground begins to shake!
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: With this contraption of theirs disabled, the energy collected for the Dark God has nowhere to go…051.png)
: Okay, people. Ideas?: Uh…I could, uh…blast a hole in the wall? Oh, but that’d just bring this place down faster...: Don’t worry, everyone. I can get us out of here.052.png)
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: I can use my magic to take us from this place. Hold on!054.png)
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The party warps out, and not a moment too soon as the Cathedral begins to collapse.
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A massive explosion scythes through Evrai, wiping the corrupted and soulless city from the face of the world. We may not have cornered Habalk, but we obliterated his home base and put a stop to whatever evils he was performing there.
If you don’t save the Old Man you still get teleported out, but you will be locked out of the best ending.