Part 4: Chapter IIIb

Sorry, holidays are busy as hell at work and I've just been so tired to past few days. Bright side, we actually get to he meat of the game in this update! So people might actually have stuff to say!

Chapter IIIb

Last time, we ran got the Nue to run away. I also forgot to link the music for Mount Glaus so here ya go



Remember how I said there are a few times where there won't be a diary to save? There's a few dragon statues throughout the game you can save at too. This is the first.



Gee, I wonder which way the monster went?



He went into this cave but treasure comes first, so we take the fork that goes around that ledge.



Vitamins. This restores 100 HP to the entire party, and are pretty rare. Not to be confused with the item Vitamin which restores 100 HP to one character. Oddly enough, they're more rare than Moon Tears which restore full HP and status to the party. Beats me.



This is the cave. I don't think it has an official name, but the music is pretty atmospheric and it looks more natural than a lot of other RPG caves.



These are Bats. They are incredibly weak and die to one physical attack from pretty much anything. They have an endgame skill to learn, but we can't get to it later. We can in theory get it after the next dungeon, but it'd involve a bit of luck.



As far as RPG dungeons go, you can't get more basic than this. It's literally a tunnel with a few branching paths with treasures at the end.




Like so. Now the whole party is equipped with the worst sword weapon in the entire game!



Zombies are fairly basic enemies. They always start the battle confused, so they'll physically attack any ally or enemy at random. They've got a bit of HP for this point of the game though, especially if you're equipped with Bent Swords.



But up here is where we need to go. The party is looking the other way because I just fought a battle.




This is a dead end, but the dead corpse has some money just waiting to be looted.




The Ballock Knife is the second strongest weapon available to us at the moment. Rei comes equipped with one, so this makes 2. The Talisman ups your defense against instant death attacks, none of which we'll encounter until a little under half the game.



Teepo, in a rare moment of clarity, realizes the monster probably jumped into that tunnel in the waterfall. Damn good eyes, son. Rei points out they have no way of getting to it, so the party starts looking.

Yes, I'm paraphrasing the dialogue for this dungeon. Like I said, it's RPG 101 for a while and it won't add to the plot until the end.



Further up into the cave, we end up above the waterfall, and Teepo comes up with the great idea to ride the water and land in the cave.

Now I don't know about you guys, but if anyone here in Pisgah or DuPont tried that, it wouldn't end well. It would end with my old squad being called for a body pickup.







But this being an RPG, it works.





I love the sprite work in this game. The animations for drying off are used one more time in the game, and it's right after this boss fight (Oh come on. Like you didn't know it was coming).



Just before the fight, this pretty kickass (but short) track plays. And here's the boss music track.

This fight is almost identical to the first, just longer, and this happens...



Once this happens, the Nue will use Jolt, an electric attack that does ~15 HP to the entire party. It wasn't used this time, so I didn't get a picture. All in all, a pretty simple battle, even with a naked party.



And thus it dies. Now, this next part is optional, and it's a bit of a downer, so ready your hankies.




Oh god

They're...they're cubs But it looks like they've been dead for a long time... That Nue must not have realized they were dead and kept on bringing food back for them...

: Boy, it wasn't too bright, was it? I mean, its cubs were already dead...

: Boy, if this doesn't beat all. Sheesh...

Our little family turns around and heads back out.






And Bunyan approaches. The very last person I'd wanna see right now. If you didn't see the cubs, you don't get this scene.

Bunyan: So...How does it feel to do some real work for a change, mmm? When spring comes... The animals will return, and life will get a little easier... You all did a good job...congratulations!

: Wait a minute...... You knew the Nue was only hunting for food for her cubs... And you still had us kill her!?

Bunyan: If you had known she had cubs.... would you have let her live...?

You know, it's a good question, especially for someone like Rei, who puts his loved ones above everything else. Would he have been able to go through with it?

Fade out.



Music: Eden

And so, spring came at last. Spring came to the mountain, and to woods, and to their inhabitants. And the virtue of the young boys who saved the village from the ferocious Nue Chimera... Earned them a place in the villagers' hearts...



There's those bright colors I know and love!



: I went to the west woods, looking for animals and berries...and look what I found!



: Now we won't have to worry about food anymore, right Rei? It's a good thing we got rid of that monster, huh?

: ...I suppose so

: Hey! Why don't we go down to the village and show 'em who did it? Tell 'em who got rid of the monster!

: Hmmm... ... ... I don't know... Isn't it better if we don't brag about it?

: W.. Why's that?

: But... ... ... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go see what they're saying about us, would it?

: Then we can go!? Come on, come on!



So let's go to the village. Where Teepo clearly hasn't been.




In front of the house, we find some Skill Ink (which I'll get into soon) and an Ammonia, an item which resurrects someone with 1 HP.



Even the world map looks prettier!



This plays once you enter the village



...This is odd.

: That's funny...no one's here... I told everyone that we'd be coming into town today...

: What? I knew you were bragging! I knew it!

: Heh heh...



: Hey, Teepo... What's going on?

Man: Hey, Rei

Old man: Is it true what they say...? That you three killed the Nue?

: Well... um yeah

Man: So what Bunyan was saying is true then...

Old woman: So you mean you risked your lives ...for us?

: I guess you could say that...

Village elder: Well done!! Looks like we misjudged you boys... We're sorry... and we're grateful...

Old woman: We certainly are! If we'd known what you were really like before, well then...

Man: You won't need to steal anything ever again! We'll give you food whenever you need it--just ask!

Everyone disperses

: Doesn't that just beat all... What do you think of that--we're heroes!?

: I don't know about you... but I feel pretty important...



That shady guy in the hood starts up the next plot point, but we're gonna avoid him for this update and get some equipment and our first Master.





But first, shopping! I buy 2 Cloth Shields, 3 Brass Helms, a Wooden Rod for fishing, and some worms.



Back on the world map, we come upon this. You see those big trees? Those are Yggdrasil trees, and there are a few you can interact with later on. This one just has a clearing. It's never really explained why the tree was cut down, but I have my theories.



Mygas is our first Master. To apprentice under him, you have to give him all your cash so he can continue his journey (don't worry, he never moves from this spot). He's a wizard.

The Master system is fairly simple. Occasionally, you'll meet an NPC you can apprentice under. Most of them have some kind of prerequisite, but it's usually something fairly simple.

Once you apprentice someone under a Master, the stats they gain upon leveling up change. A few (Mygas included) also affect hidden stats (Hit, chance for initiative, dodge rate, critical rate, elemental resistance, etc).

For Mygas, these stat changes are:

AP+1
Intelligence+2
Power-1
Defense-1

Yes, it can be positive or negative. Let's say when leveling to level 2, Teepo normally gains:

3 HP
2 AP
3 Attack
2 Defense
2 Intelligence
2 Agility

If he were apprenticed under Mygas for that level up, the level would change to:

3 HP
3 AP
2 Attack
1 Defense
4 Intelligence
2 Agility

Like stated before, some Masters affect hidden stats. For these, the number don't change upon leveling (since leveling up doesn't affect these at all, but I'll get into that later). For Mygas, the characters initiative chance (chance for the party to get a free opening round in battle) is raised by 5, and their dodge rate is lowered by 2. Nothing major.

But this is the biggie. Masters teach Skills to their apprentices once they've leveled up. Mygas naturally teaches a few spells, and they're all fairly useful.

Basically, the Master system can be used to customize your characters. It's very handy.

And, while we're on the subject of Skills, I'll finally get into that. Skills can be learned one of two ways. Either from a Master, like mentioned, or from examining an enemy who uses it. Some Skills overlap, but the important thing is each Skill can only be learned once, period. If you've learned a Skill from a monster that a Master teaches, the Master will skip over that one. Some Skills that monsters use cannot be learned through examining, but can be learned through Masters. There are also a few Skills that party members learn through leveling up (such as Frost, Mygas' first spell) that other people can learn through Masters. In theory, Mygas can teach Teepo the Frost spell, but there's no point to it since he learns it naturally.

Skills can also be transferred in camp with the use of Skill Ink.

Any questions?

Who should I apprentice to Mygas, Teepo or Ken?

And onel ast thing before I leave you guys. Fishing. I hate fishing (in this game. in real life it's pretty awesome)



Anytime you see a fish jumping in and out of the water, you can fish.



This is the main screen and here's the pretty kickass music that plays while fishing.



Here, we equip our rod and bait. Different fish are attracted to different bait, but all we need today is the Wooden Rod, some worms, and the Coin we found earlier (betcha didn't think we'd use it here of all places).



That green bar at the bottom increases and decreases at a rhythm. The longer it is when you hit X, the further your line goes.



There's only a handful of shapes, but we're looking for the biggest ones here, the Rainbow Trout.



Once a fish bites, you need to reel it in. See the bottom of the screen? The fish will bite and you need to match your reeling it in with it. Basically, keep the fish icon inside the green bar. The bar will move towards the left as you reel it. If the fish pulls, the fish icon will go right, so stop reeling and let the green bar go with it, otherwise the line will break and you'll lose both the bait and the fish.



While reeling, fish tend to jump out of the water. You can see our Rainbow Trout in the upper left. They also sometimes jump out when not on the line, but it's much more rare.



There we go, a Rainbow Trout. We want 6 of them.

Fish also give points. You only get points counted once for each type of fish, but that can be brought up if you catch a bigger version of the same fish. This has exactly two purposes in the entire game.




We also catch some of these.



Rainbow Trout restore 5 AP. AP restoration is rare in this game, but there are better fish to do it with. I don't normally bother with fishing for that kind of stuff, but if you guys want me to, I will.



Our last stop for the day is the other fishing spot in the area.



Here we catch a Trout. Again, we want 6 of them.



Once we have our 6, we switch our bait out for the Coin.



Shiny.



Coins are special. You can put them anywhere, and the one thing they attract will zero in on it, no matter how far apart they are.



And here it comes.





We caught us a Manillo! Manillo are merchants, but act differently. First of all, you can only find them/catch them at certain fishing spots. Second of all...



They only trade stuff for fish. This is hands down the best way to get Skill Inks (which are nowhere near as common as their Breath of Fire IV counterpart, Aurum). They also tend to have pretty kickass equipment. Here we buy 3 Silver Knives, the most powerful weapon we can have now, and also Holy elemental which will come in handy in the next dungeon.

And with that, I bid you adieu until next time, but first, a poll:

What challenge will take me through the next dungeon?
Who should I apprentice under Mygas? Teepo, Ken, or both?.

Keep in kind the challenge doesn't have to be necessarily something difficult. During my first attempt, I had to learn every available skill up until the Nue fight, so feel free to get creative.