The Let's Play Archive

Breath of Fire II

by Scintilla

Part 84: Chapter Sixty Two: Family Fortunes

Music: 02 – My Home Sweet Home







:…? Hey, we’re back in Township!

: This…is your home town, correct? Forgive me…I cannot see anything anymore…

: Wuh? What do you mean?



: My blindness is a direct result of that horrible experience…In any case, you were brought here by my teleport spell because your thoughts and memories of this place influenced it…



: But it seems to me he might be a trump card we can use against those Church of Eva bastards…





: Wh…what? Did someone say ‘Ryu’? Is…is he here right now?

: Huh? Yeah, that’s my name. What about it?





: Who you are? Listen, I’m pretty sure I’ve never…seen…



: Wait…what…did you just say…?

Music: 03 – Memories (Yua)



: No…it can’t be…you disappeared…all those years ago…





:…Dad?

: Ryu…You have grown strong, even in my absence. There are some things one can see, even without eyes.

: But…but…what happened? Why did you disappear? Tell me! Please…tell me what happened that day, ten years ago. I have to know…

:…Very well. The story begins after you stayed behind in the bushlands beyond the town.













Music: Stealthy Shadow



: Run, Yua! Hurry!



: Father Ganer, I presume.

: Foul creature! What have you done to the people of Gate?!

: I’ve done nothing to harm them, old man. Just a little memory manipulation…Right now, they don’t know you or your whelps from what they had for breakfast.



: You…you can’t be serious! What do you want with them? With my family?!

: The village and everything in it is now the property of our God. Everyone will be put to use towards his ends…including you.

: I’d sooner die than aid your twisted schemes! Have at you, demon!





: I became an integral component of their diabolic contraption, and for ten years I suffered through living death. But even that suffering could not compare to the betrayal I felt.



: I was an unwitting agent of its wicked plan to lead the world into ruin…as were all of the poor fools who believed in his Gospel!



: If he were ever to emerge upon this world, everything would be plunged into destruction and despair. He must be stopped, at all costs!

:…Whatever. It doesn’t matter. I’m just happy my dad isn’t dead like I thought he was.

: Naturally we’re all happy for you, Ryu, but there’s still the problem of stopping this Dark God. We dealt him a blow back at the Cathedral, but surely it won’t be enough to stop him. It never is with these sorts of creatures.



: But that doesn’t mean his efforts have been thwarted entirely. There are other ways with which he can obtain power…

: You mean the whole thing with the forests dying, right?

: Just so.





Music: 19 – Our Journey



: No pressure, right? But yeah, whatever, sign me up. Nobody screws with my old man and gets away with it. Just sit tight, dad. We’ll see how high and mighty this Dark God is once I’ve taken my sword to his face.

The player regains control at this point. It should be noted that you don’t get this scene if you kill Ganer during the Guardeye boss fight. You just get warped back to Township and that’s it. Plotwise our next destination is Gate, but the fall of the Cathedral has opened up a number of new options for us.



Going downstairs reveals we were in fact in the room above the carpenter’s house.



Regardless, our first destination is Farma.



It seems a strange being has taken up residence in Daisy’s field.







And we obtain Sollo the Earth Shaman! The Earth Shaman is a key component in many fusions so it’s good to have her along. In order to unlock her it is necessary to donate twenty times in Namanda’s shrine back at the Earth Temple before you storm the Cathedral. There are rumours that Sollo will not appear if you use magic during the battles when you plough the field earlier in the game, but these are absolutely untrue. Sollo will appear even if you do nothing but spam magic throughout the fights. The only requirement for her appearance is to donate twenty or more times.

It’s good to have the Earth Shaman, but hey? Why stop there?



Rhode Chapel is next up on our list of places to visit.



One of the rooms in the secret area contains this woman.











This whole arrogant spiel is particularly hilarious given that Saynie is bugged and provides no bonus to characters she fuses with. But wait…there’s more to do.



Remember this island? It’s the place with the armoury that sells ludicrously overpowered weapons. It also has a special enemy encounter that only emerges at night.



That encounter being the Ragnariders. Ragnariders are unbelievably tough – their basic attacks do around 150 damage and if they roll a critical whoever they targeted is dead, no questions asked. They can also cast all the high level spells – Blizzard, Typhoon, Death, you name it. The rewards for defeating them are, however, enormous. Two of them like this will give over 40,000 experience when killed, and they also have a chance of dropping Tapeta’s ultimate weapon.

…But wait, there’s more. Remember Burroughs, the old guy who offered to teach us magic if we let him live in Township?



It’s time for this old guy to live up to his end of the bargain. Before anything else though, it’s important that the character you wish to be taught magic be like this:



In other words, they have 0 AP and only 1 HP. You’ll see why in a minute.







Like so.







And again.







Okay, notice how the Dragon Tear changed colour as the conversation progressed and we met Burroughs’s requirements? That’s the mechanic for this subquest. You can choose not to learn the spell Burroughs offers you and repeat the conversation until the Dragon Tear hits maximum affection. The higher the affection, the better the spell Burroughs will offer to teach. He starts out offering Iceblast. If you repeat the conversation twice he’ll offer Fireblast. The third time…



He’ll offer Sirocco (Missile in Capcom’s translation), the strongest wind elemental spell in the game. Now, Nina, Deis and Sten will all learn this spell naturally, but shit, why wait? The only other worthwhile candidate is Aspara, after all.

One last thing before I wrap this update up.



Whilst on Giant Island I encounter these guys. These golden slimes are Goo Kings. They are Boss-tier enemies who are even stronger than the Ragnariders, but they give out 80,000 experience points when killed. They are extremely rare and hard to take down unless you have a Kaiser Dragon saved up, but well worth the prize when you do.

For the moment that’s everything. Next time will see Ryu’s long awaited homecoming.