Part 38: Chapter XXXVII: Bungle In The Jungle

So, back on the world map.



Like the sandflier, the boat can be automated by just traveling on the world map. Or using Shift, but not everybody found that one. Let's pay a visit to our buddy Kryrik.



: "Have you gotten your sea legs yet? If not, I can give you some help. I've been a sailor all my life, and I know pretty much everything there is to know about life on the sea. I know you got the Sea God's blessing and all, so you probably don't need my help, but if you want my help, just ask."

Give unto me your manly secrets!

: "All right, I'll show you what I've learned about being a sailor...or I thought I would, but it looks like you're not ready yet. Let's see...you know about combo attacks, don't you? Come back when you've been able to make a combo attack with 25 or more hits. See you around!"

God damnit all



Let's poke our head in the fishing spot over there before going in this ?.



This is the second lake spot, and the first spot aside from that ocean spot that will give you real trouble if you fish in it with crappy gear. As such, we will leave it be.

Before we advance the "plot," let's poke in on the faeries.



Smart, clumsy, awkward. NEXT.



A wheelchair-bound retard who designs for Gucci. I can believe it! I believe that this is our first really stylish faerie.



This is our new job, Music. It's rendered pretty much useless when there's online compilations of the soundtrack, but it's a good idea to have one faerie in it to power a faerie ability we'll get later that's deceptively powerful.



This is what it looks like to stay in a faerie inn, by the way. If you stick two more faeries in the inn, they'll tell you statistics about the game.



: "Let's see...so far, you've encountered 366 monsters, stayed at an inn 25 times, camped 27 times, and earned 81805 zenny!"

: "You've looked in 22 people's dressers, found 110 treasures, and gone fishing 10 times!"

Fun stuff, but nowhere near worth keeping faeries in full time for. The best way to use the inn is to take a faerie off hunting temporarily, park them in the inn, and use them to rest for free. Once you've done that, put them back on hunting. You'll lose no food for doing so, as food consumption rate is based on monster encounters.



As stated earlier, shops take a while to get anything useful.

Alright, let's go to that ? now.



That's kinda creepy.

These are Masks and a Mirror, two extremely annoying enemy types. Masks spam Counter, which allows them to auto-counter any hit they receive, and Mirrors spam Backlash, which lets them automatically use the last magic attack (including combo magic!) to hit them at the end of the turn.



You can learn Counter from them though.



Oh yeah, their animations are also somewhere between terrifying and hilarious. It errs on the side of hilarious when you hear their *ngyuck* sound they make.

So, let's smack them around a bit.



Is that...



...yes, yes it is. They even gave him a shiny red butt. Stay classy, Japan.



...Tar Baby? Really?

Yeah, there's not much to say here, they're standard ooze-pus-tar-things with one exception we'll see in a little bit.



So, heading through the area to a crossroads, we find this little squeaky thing.



: "Pocco rikuku, kappelu, paketo tapulu, palu palu."

ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?

Ahem. Imagine The Cheat talking over this and you have an approximation of what it sounds like.



So yea, like the fucking parrot, we now have to interpret something that's speaking gibberish and select the right dialogue. Luckily it's much simpler this time.



Since I don't want to waste anything useful on the little moocher, I'll stuff raw jellyfish down its throat, horrible toxin-covered stingers and all.

So since it only talks in gibberish we can't really understand, I'll gloss over it and say we stuff six jellyfish down its throat and give it a healing herb to treat its inevitable stomachache.



Moving on.



Yes, like the dam, this place is full of mud with wood planks to allow you to run. There are, of course, items out in the mud.



Ooh, this is a fun enemy. It's mostly harmless, but Ovum is a hilarious move.



Yes, that's Cray as a tiger-striped egg with a little fuzzy tail. Characters who have turned into eggs have massively lowered stats. They turn back to normal after three turns, and each turn they gain access to a new move. Sacrifice is pictured here, Boil turns the character back to normal at the cost of most of their health, and Hatch...



Yes, you're watching a 3D-rendered chicken tear that poor thing to shreds. Yes, it's hilariously awesome.



These are Ryu and Scias's eggs. Scias's ears still flutter in the breeze.



Nina's egg hovers a bit as its wings flutter, while Ursula's tail twitches.



Ershin, meanwhile, has an egg with a rotating light like a Cylon.



Here's Hatch again because it's the best move.



Also, Scias now has Raise Dead, letting him fill in for Nina if Nina is the one who's knocked out.



These are the Fire Ants. They attack with Burn and Flame Strike, and if there's Tar Babies with them, the Tar Babies use Douse, a move that lowers the victim's fire resistance.



Yep, not much to this place.



The last area is full of floating logs you can move back and forth. Once again, the way across is pretty simple, but that item takes some doing to get to.



However, this one is incredibly worth it.



Ershin constantly gets the coolest weapons in the game.



Pabpab? The hell kind of name is that?



Hey, this place looks lived-in. Wonder if anybody's around.



JESUS CHRIST ARROWS



Hey, is that the little fuzzball we fed poisonous sea creatures to earlier?



It is! Being a good Samaritan pays off after all.



: "We'll I'll be...visitors! Please, please - come in!"

Surely we can trust this man who lives in the middle of a God-forsaken bog with dust bunnies.



This place has the most annoyingly catchy song in the game.



: "I was quite the adventurer myself. I came here from the mainland several years ago. Then of course I met my wife, and I ended up staying here. I'm sorry - I haven't properly introduced myself! How rude! My name is Beyd, and this is Sen, Shami, Rinpo, Poske, and Peso. They wanted to see you - we don't get many visitors here, you know..."

Wait, Beyd? The nerd from Breath of Fire III? There's probably nothing to this, just Breath of Fire loving to reuse names.



: "Pretty cute, isn't she?"

Wait, who?...you're talking about the fuzzball, aren't you.

Poko looks at Nina, then at Ryu, then hops up and down.

: "Pokko, pyuui! Ni, waama poto pyuui!"

: "She says your wife is also very beautiful."

Ryu and Nina blush.



I love Cray.





: "Oh, that's right! I'm sorry! Well, the people who told you that you can get there from here by crossing the flats were right - you can. However, you can only do so when the tide changes and expose the road through the flats. You have to time is just right, before the road disappears."



: "Purechi, suru ko! Taan, kalu. Pokko kairu ni."

: "She says you should stay here for a while. She'll tell you when the time comes and take you there."

Great, stuck in a village of little fuzzy things that I can't comprehend.



Wait, what's up with that one? The other two are dancing around it and chanting. Let's see what that book says.


The ones with ? are ones I added myself. Looks like the little twerps are called Pabpab, just like the village. Fun fact: most Pabpab words are either Japanese-English mashups (Ueshi = West + Nishi) or Japanese and English words with their phonemes mangled (Treja = treasure).



Hmm. Looks like he's saying that he's dancing to chase away an enemy.



"Dance, dance, enemy, what will be will be."



Self explanatory.



Surely this won't become an annoying fetch quest in about five seconds.



Oh buggery.



: "The truth is...none of the herbs around here can be used to cure that disease. I've tried everything, but..."

What disease? Being hunched over and groaning?

: "Then...What's going to happen to him!?"

: "Besides, the Pabpab say 'pukapuka' - 'what will be, will be.' It's their way of life...dying doesn't seem to bother them much."

: "Well, it bothers me! We can't just let him die! We'll go get the herbs you need! Where can we find them?"

: "We can't just sit around here waiting, doing nothing. Let us do something to help pay back your hospitality."

: "All right then...first, you'll need to go to Lyp. The herbs we need can be found somewhere on the ocean. Someone in Lyp should be able to tell you where to find it."

God damnit I already explored the ocean now I have to go back AGAIN!?

It's not that bad, actually, it's just another instance of stupidly pointless plot padding. Let's chat with the furballs on the way out.



"Friends, take it easy!"



Probably means "Sorry for shooting at you, we thought you were an enemy."



"I'm a pabpab. You're a friend."

Alright, next time, we save Cousin It's inlaws from the plague.