Breath of Fire IV Part #17 - Chapter XVII: Ershin Is Still Pretty Awesome

Part 17: Chapter XVII: Ershin Is Still Pretty Awesome

This'll be another big update due to

Ludia is an industrial town, and going around talking to people gives a couple different plot threads. One of them is that Elina and the Ludian Prince were engaged to be married before she disappeared, and some weird shit's been going down at a nearby forest called Wychwood, like phantom noises and people being poked in the eye. Let's head to the castle to see Cray.

: "No visitors are allowed!"

: "Master Cray is the leader of the Woren nation...unlike you, he must be kept under strict guard. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave. Scias, keep your eye on them!"

And with that, the group gets the boot.

: "Poor Cray...this is all my fault..."

: "...we can't just sit here and do nothing...I know! Let's go to Worent! That's where Cray is from! They have a guard to watch us. Still, they never said we couldn't go anywhere, right? Let's go, Worent is to the south of here, past the forest."

Here's where we are in relation to the rest of the world, southeast of the desert.

So, down there is Wychwood. Up north is a town we don't technically need to visit for a while, so we'll leave it alone.

Here we get an introduction to two new enemies. Wyds either spit seeds at you, or take a turn inhaling before casting Sever. If they're hit with a fire attack...

They become the infinitely cooler looking Firewyd. Firewyd are healed and powered up by fire damage, and can cast fire magic to both heal themselves and convert any other Wyds on the field to Firewyd. If hit with water, they go back to being normal Wyd.

That little bastard with an acorn for a head, by the way, is a NutTroop, the first of a very very annoying triad of enemies, the Nuts. They're stupid fast, can parry most of your attacks, dodge most magic, have a tendency to boost themselves to even higher stats, and hit surprisingly hard for being so tiny. They're complete asshats. NutTroops use Double Blow once every other round, so learn that off them when you can.

Here's Scias's skills, a good look at how he'll develop. The skill I am highlighting is at least 50% of the reason why he's so amazing, however.

It always hits...

...always does critical damage...

...and +1 swords let it hit twice. It also looks freaking awesome.

Also, Scias's ice magic lets us combo Ice>Earth for the first time. This here's Tempest, the second tier of Ice>Earth combos.

Let's move on to Wychwood then.

WAIT WHAT? THE BEST FISHING SPOT?

WHY MUST THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN WHEN MY FRIENDS ARE IN PERIL

This is the NutArcher, the most annoying of the three Nut enemy types. It's the fastest, barely ever gets hit by your attacks, almost always hits for criticals, and casts Haste to make it and its allies even more agile. If there were scrolls of Genocide in this game, I'd probably use one on these little assholes first.

FISHING SPOOOOOOT

This is our first Ocean spot. Ocean spots have tons of fish and are enormous. We'll be barely scraping the surface of what we can catch here with our dinky little wooden rod.

Sea Bream restore 30 AP. That's as much as a Wisdom Seed. They're awesome.

Flying Fish are like super Croc Tears. They restore 100 HP and have a much higher chance of removing status effects.

Man-o'-Wars are exactly the same as jellyfish.

Okay, okay, let's actually advance the plot.

Wychwood has enemies, and decent music, and is foggy. That's about it for the first bit.

Walking into the second half, we hear a giggle.

: "Is it just me, or is the mist getting thicker?"

: "Ershin says she has a strange feeling about this place..."

: "Me too. Let's hurry up and get out of here as quickly as we can."

Err...

Uh oh.

The ground starts shaking violently, and a black shadow looms over Nina.

It's just Scias being huge and nearly squishing her flat.

: "How amusing!"

: "D...D...Disappeared!? That's not g-good!"

: "Ershin says it would seem she did not fall."

: "All of a sudden everything's gotten..."

Birdie!

Looks like birdie found something!

Bye birdie!

: "L...L-Let's l-look for her."

Double Blow is exactly what it sounds like.

Also, trying to leave gets us this message. What if she somehow got outside this area, game? What then?

We continue through the area, looking for Nina, and the camera pans away.

: "We shrunk that girl!"

: "Come on! Let's think of something to do to the other three!"

: "Yeah! Let's see...what should we do? I know! Let's poke them in the eye!"

The sparkly auras fly over to the group, but Ryu and Ershin stare at them. Scias looks around, completely oblivious.

: "No way! That's impossible! Mortals can't see us!"

Are you guys ready for the best animation in the game?

I don't think you guys are ready for the best animation in the game.

Here it is anyway.

I could seriously watch that headbutt all day on loop. Maybe with a techno beat in the back.

One of the few times it's referenced in-game.

: "Ershin is asking, 'What you have done with Nina?'"

: "Well, now that you found us I guess we have to tell you..."

: "We shrunk her, see? Made her really tiny..."

: "And then she got carried off by a bird!"

What.

: "If you find one, shake it - maybe she'll fall out!"

: "Don't worry - she won't stay small forever. It'll wear off in time."

And that's the last of the faeries we see for a while.

: "Ershin says we should listen for a bird singing, and follow it to the tree where it lives, then have Ershin hit the tree."

So, we follow the birdsong until we find the tree where it's the loudest, and give it a good whack with Ershin.

The tree shakes, jolting Nina awake.

: "Wh...What's happened to me? I...I've shrunk! But...how? Why? What happened?...I can worry about that later. I've got to get out of here before that bird eats me!"

We hop out of the nest and are immediately faced with our giant feathery kidnapper.