Part 2: Chapter II: I Really Hope That's Not the Scarecrow From That One Episode of Supernatural

Chapter II: I Really Hope That's Not the Scarecrow From That One Episode of Supernatural

Challenge: The party has to be as naked as possible until after the first boss fight.

The challenge won't come into play much this update, because this is a bunch of

Welcome back! When we last left our hero Ryu Ken, he just woke up. So let's find something for him to do.



Diaries are the main form of saving in this game. Occasionally you'll find something else, but it's usually a diary or an innkeeper. So let's save!



Seriously, I love that portrait.




There are a couple of friendly monsters outside the cabin. Their purpose is to provide a little information about the game basics, but it's nothing I won't tell you. They won't tell you until you get a party together together anyway. Jerks.



This guy tells you to avoid Rei and Teepo. Apparently Rei and Teepo are is a delinquent. An immature asshat. Fuckface. DICKWEED!



On your way out, you can examine this pool for an infinite supply of Croc Tears, the worst healing item in the game. They have a chance to restore you from a status ailment. But hey sell for 2 zenny each, so if you have the patience/lack of life, you could theoretically spend time maxing out money 198 Zenny at a time. It's always available throughout the game.

...I will not be doing that.



This is the world map, and this is the music that plays on it. It's kinda jazzy, and definitely one of my favorite world map themes. It actually reminds me a bit of Trance Jazz by the Exodus Quartet. It also plays during a few map locations.

I know the map looks bland now, but it gets stunning later on.

Hey, you know what's awesome? This map has no random battles. None. A ! will appear over Ken's head, and if you wanna fight in a small arena, you can.

You know what's awesomer? Unlike Final Fantasy games, you have 1 tent the whole game, that can be used as many times as you like. It serves as a base, but I'll get to that a little later. But the point is, as long as you can get to the world map, you can rest for free anytime. Not that inns are expensive, but it's still nice.



We can't get in any fights or anything, so let's go check out what's going on at the village.



This is the theme for most villages in the game.

Ken wanders into the middle of town and hears some kind of commotion, confusing him.



Rei is awesome. You wish you could be him. I wanna be a tiger-man.



Teepo runs up. They've been thrown out of a house.

: It's no use, Rei. Everyone's watching out for us.

: Nobody's got much food, what with the poor harvest and all. Hey, Teepo, look at this.

: Hey! You finally woke up, huh?

: Doesn't this beat all! Now we've got another mouth to feed...

: What if we get him to help us, Rei?

: Good idea... But I think we need to get him out of his pajamas first.

: C'mon! We'll get you fixed up with some equipment!



Let's talk to the guy who was apparently dropped into a tub of purple paint and hasn't bathed since.



I will never get used to seeing or typing Ken. EVER.

: You just wait, Ken. Rei'll get you set up with something in no time! Huh??...Did I just say Ken? ......Is that your name? Funny...how did I know that? Maybe I dreamed it...?

During that line, Rei snuck into the store. And 1, 2, 3...



Rei gets caught and the party am-scrays. They get the fuck outta dodge and won't be back for a while.

Not because the game won't let you, because I have no need to due to my party currently not needing equipment.



A nice little touch is that during this scene, Ken moves slowly one step at a time while he gets used to the weight of his new armor.

: That was close, wasn't it, Rei?

: Sure was... But we were able to get him something to wear

: Hurry up, Ken. Don't be a slowpoke!

: Not used to wearing armor yet, eh....? Well, it's better than pajamas, I suppose.

: What do we do now, Rei?

: Well... Everyone in town's in a bad mood over the poor harvest... I know! Let's hit the road! We can do some work there!

: There's a road up ahead called the Yraall Road... We go there sometimes and, well, mug people

: It's not like we hurt people or anything... Just steal from 'em. I'm not into hurting people, you know.

: That's right! Even a beginner like you can do it! C'mon, don't worry. Let's go!

And so we get our first quest! Mugging people! Go good guys! WHOOOOOOOOOO!

But we're not doing that. First, let's strip the party down.



Here's the sub-screen. I'll get to that in a minute. But more importantly:





NUDITY!

The game won't let you not have a weapon, so we have to make due with what we have. Ken and Teepo have weapons with 4 power and 1 weight, while Rei's has 6 power and 1 weight. Don't worry, I'll be getting Rei a different weapon in a minute. But while we're here:



This is the Formation Menu. Here you can change the party formation and change party members on the world map. Very handy.

The Normal Formation offers no special benefits. No stats are increased, no stats are decreased, and everyone has an equal chance to be attacked.

The Attack Formation puts one member in front and gives them a 70% increase in attack power. 70 freaking percent. In exchange, they lose 20% defense, and have a 50% chance to be attacked. They also have a much higher chance to counterattack. The two members in the back each have a 25% chance to be targeted. Insanely broken later on.

The Defense Formation puts your party members all in a line. They game 25% defense, lose 33% agility, and everyone has an equal chance to be attacked. It has it's uses, but it's really not the best, unless you're using a slow party anyways. And chances are if your party is slow, defense won't be an issue anyway.

BACK ON THE FARM KEN SEES A SCARECROW (while listening to this



Who also happens to be one of the more terrifying NPCs in the history of time. Seriously, try and tell me you wouldn't freak out if you met a talking scarecrow. He tells you to talk to people, because you never know what you'll learn. RPG 101 in a nutshell.



Back on the world map, let's explore a little before heading to the road. It'll also help us later on.

BUT FIRST LET'S LEARN ABOUT FIGHTING!



Yes, I know this isn't the first battle I actually got into, but I forgot to get a picture of the menu until this one so deal with it. Here's the normal battle music. It's the same music that played against the foreman back in the mine.

The battle menu is all self explanatory. Attack lets you choose a target to attack, Defend lets you defend, Item lets you use an item or change equipment, and Ability lets you use magic or a Skill.

What's the difference you ask? Good question, you! It's tied with the next option.

Press left to Examine. Examine lets you observe an enemy and have a chance to learn any skills it uses on that turn. If it doesn't use a Skill, it's a waste of a turn, but if it uses a Skill, you have a chance to learn it. Some are absolutely great. Skills can only be learned by one person, but they can be transferred.

You may also notice that Ken is almost dead. In order to get the most out of the character building experience, Ken will be spending the first chunk of the game unconscious. Teepo will too, but not as long. Rei will basically be soloing the first boss (naked), and Teepo will be soloing the dungeon after that.

Basically right now, we're doing as much as possible to make it easy as possible for Teepo and Ken in a little bit. Rei will be temporarily leaving us later.



This is what Pilfer does. It lets you attack and try to steal an item. I got this from the pink Boss Goblin, and it's the best armor for the first chunk of the game. I'm just grabbing this while I'm here, it's not going on anyone. This next one is another story.



I got this from the green Goblin. It has a power of 2 and a weight of 5 and is the closest Rei can get to being naked without switching his weapon with Ken or Teepo.

...And it just occured to me to switch weapons with Ken because Ken won't be doing shit anyways.



Ken also learns Blind in the Cedar Woods. It'll come in handy.



This is where we're going. Sometimes on the world map, there's a small area you have to clear before you can pass through it on the world map. There are exactly 2 places that make you pass through the dungeon every time you wanna pass. And they're both places you pass through a few times. And only 1 has random battles.



Those blue things are Eye Goos. They are the most basic enemy in the game, but they still hide a few secrets:

1) If you hit them with Blind, the experience they give each jumps to 20
2) They carry Healing Herbs to be Pilfered (they heal 40 HP)
3) After 10 rounds, they use a Skill called Rest, which restores a tiny bit of HP and (more importantly) AP. Since AP restoration is fairly uncommon, it's a great skill to learn.

So with Ken blinding them and the two little ones being unconscious, Rei gets 40 experience (a metric shitton for this part of the game) and levels up.



This game is already better than the previous two by sheer virtue of the fact that it both shows you what stats go up upon levelling AND shows them on one screen. Innovation!



I could have sworn I got a pic, but guess not. Outside of battle, Teepo can kick shit around. Here, he kicked a small rock holding up the bigger rock, knocking the boulder into the river. This blocks off the river and probably isn't helping with the poor harvest. Teepo is a dick.

But hey it lets us get a treasure!



The Weather Vane is an item that does wind elemental damage against all enemies. Handy, but we won't be using it for a while.





This place is a very short filler dungeon, but it does give me a chance to explain one last thing in this update: EX turns. If you have roughly 1.5 times the average agility of the enemy party, the character gets a extra turn to do whatever they want. Fortunately, it's something only your party gets.



On our way out, Teepo kicks another rock and we find this. No, this is not just 1 Zenny. This is something I made the mistake of selling last time. I'll show it off when it becomes relevant.

All right, that's enough boring shit. Let's forward the plot a little.





: This is where we work. The Yraall Road. This road goes all the way to Wyndia. Someday, we're gonna blow this place and head out to a big city like Wyndia. right, Rei?

: Well... instead of worrying about that, let's think about getting something to eat today, OK? We should go hide and wait for someone to come by... Behind that tree up there looks good to me.



The game is nice enough to point out which tree Rei is talking about.



Free cash comes first though.



: All right, let's wait here. When someone comes by, we jump out...



: Like this! What's up, Ken? Don't get all soft on us now...

: Don't worry... We're just some poor kids trying to get some food. Whoever it is will forgive us...right?

: Hey! Here comes somebody!



Seriously? You wanna mess with the guy roughly the size of a boulder?

: He's alone... OK, Ken, show us what you're made of...Go get him!

: Just run into him, like this!



Yes. Teepo literally kicks Ken into the boulder-man. Ken literally bounces off.



Bunyan: What are you trying to do, little one? Mug me, hmm? We've got enough trouble around here already with those rascals Teepo and Rei. Listen to me... If you run into them tell them that if I catch them...they'll be sorry!

And he walks away.

: Whoops... Figures it would be Bunyan.

: Who does he think he is, anyway?

: Hey...wait a minute! If old man Bunyan's out here, that means there's no one at his house, right?

: You're right! Let's go and grab some of his food! That'll show 'im!



Back on the world map, we return to the Cedar Woods. Bunyan lives in that cabin just above the text box.



On the way there, Rei levels up again!



And this is were we end today's update, breaking and entering. Good times.