Part 72: Quiet Battles

Last time, Li Hua and Darwin managed to defeat Conquest, one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse. However, not before he destroyed the Sopia core.

Let's begin by hearing everybody's reactions and then we'll get the official version from Bachs.



















And here we go.

























A very good question here, this is all a little bit suspicious if you ask me.







Oops. Didn't mean to let that slip.

















So now we are actually controlling Li Hua. But really all we can do is talk to the others and see what they think of this.



























Even Piu-Piu has something to say about this:



On the other hand, Lessica is typically perceptive:



















But really, we want to know what Marie and Darwin think about this development:



























Well, that was strange. However, we are interrupted by an unknown voice:












(Bachs)











So we have our new mission. Interestingly enough, this time Araki will be in the lead, so that's who we have control over.

Of course, it's time for another round of conversations!

































Oh, I'm sure he has a heart of gold.

And now, brace yourself for another episode of Piu-Piu...



Wait, what?





Say, Araki, have we met before?
I don't know any monsters.
Who you callin' a monster, bub!?
...It's so strange. Feels like I've met someone just like you a million times over...
How should I know? But they did call me "the Ogre" back in Dazir.
Hmm... similar genes... the same entity in a different phase... perhaps? Ooh, it's all on the tip of my brain...
What are you mumbling about?
Ack! Didn't I tell ya to keep that face away from me!? I was just startin' to get some semblance of memory back, too!



















We'll just buy some better clothes for Darwin. It's kind of hard when the same amount of money as in previous game needs to provide for five characters instead of two (although it's true that some of the equipment is actually possible to be used by more than one character).

Back to Lessica, for some final instructions.











Ok then, looks like we should check the library first before we go.

In the library (not pictured here), the book about Four Horsemen has been filled out with descriptions for all four of them.

  THE FIRST HORSEMAN

Heralding the coming of the end, the first Horseman appears upon the breaking of the first seal. Riding atop a white horse, he carries a bow in hand and wears a crown upon his head. His role is to rule humankind, dominating over all other domination.

Past records indicate that his arrows never miss the mark.

* * *

  THE SECOND HORSEMAN

Heralding the coming of the end, the second Horseman appears upon the breaking of the second seal. Riding atop a red horse, he carries a great sword. His role is to wage war upon humankind. He brings strife wherever he roams.

Past records indicate that the sword he bears is capable of a devastating attack.

* * *

  THE THIRD HORSEMAN

Heralding the coming of the end, the third Horseman appears upon the breaking of the third seal. Riding atop a black horse, he carries a set of scales in his hand. He starves humankind by bringing droughts to the land.

Past records indicate that life and vitality hang on the balance of his scales.

* * *

  THE FOURTH HORSEMAN

Heralding the coming of the end the fourth Horseman appears upon the breaking of the fourth seal. He is Death atop a pale horse. His role is the demise of all, for which purpose he brings beasts and disease in his wake.

Past records indicate that his sickle is linked to Abbadon itself. Any who touch it will lose their life in that instant.


So, what do we have here. The first horseman is of course, Conquest who we already fought and his special attack "Arrows of Dominion" is described. The second one is, of course, War and apparently he has some high damage attack (we'll see soon, he's next on our schedule). The third horseman is Famine but the description of his special ability is not very clear, remains to be seen what it actually does.

Finally, Death, the fourth horseman. Sounds pretty bad in general there, especially with what appears to be some sort of an insta-kill attack being described. Although, we do have an item that can somewhat mitigate those. We'll see how that goes.

All of this sounds super-awesome and I personally can't wait until we meet all of these people. Incidentally, if you go back to first part and look at the title screen for this game, you'll find that it actually depicts the Four Horsemen although it's a bit hard to see unless you already know what you are looking for.


Other than this, there is one new entry in Lessica's log that we can read. It's not super interesting, but there it is:


  LESSICA'S LOG 9

I have heard Bachs's decision regarding those to be summoned for the next Rite.

It appears a young boy is among those being chosen. I have tried to think of how I should prepare his room, but I find myself at a loss.

It appears that I need to investigate somewhat further into the Candidate's history.

* * *


Alrighty, that's done; now we can finally head out.



The game is STILL throwing new dungeons at us at this point. So here is this one.



Looks a bit similar to the opening area. Japanese title means "Quiet battles in the forest". It's kind of interesting that in this game basically none of the English titles even attempt to come close to Japanese ones, they are more like a reinterpretation.









Huh. You're smarter than you look.
We had an Easterner in the guard. He'd been away from home for a year...
A monster did him in.
Hmph. I don't know the guy from Adam, but he probably knew more than I do about the East.
What do you mean?
I ain't been back in more than ten years. Haven't been called a samurai in ages, either.
Araki, do you...
Enough small talk. Let's get a move on.











Before I forget, here is the map. A little bit more convoluted than usual, we need to make a big circle around the are to get to the middle.



The usual stuff.



This time we obtain a poison buckler with obvious purpose.











Well, isn't that just the perfect answer? So perfect it makes me wanna puke.
Then lemme ask you this: you ever do any protecting with that sword of yours?
...
What would you protect, anyway? A person? The world? Or what?
Either way, if you're itching to protect something, this is your time to shine.
With the least amount of sacrifice, you can save people AND the world. Show us what you've got.

Interesting points made by Araki here.

A little later, we find this:





Not bad.



Of course, there's also the plot force-field as always.



Here we can't pass since we need Li Hua who is not with us at this time...





(...and may the odds be ever in your favour... or something)

But anyway, as always, the warning from Bachs means that there's a boss fight on the next screen. Let's see who it is.









Awesome. Presumably you are Mr. War?





So I guess we really are ticking these off in the proper order, it seems.









So this battle is simultaneously both easier and harder than Conquest. On one hand it's a bit easier since this guy only has two different attacks. One of them is simple physical damage to one character--this is not an issue, and the attack misses half the time, it has a terrible hit percentage.

The other attack is a bit more of an issue--it does lots of elemental damage to both characters. The element is chosen randomly, but will be announced in a turn before as the attack powers up. Yes, this guy also announces his big attack, like Conquest did. Pretty much the only answer here is to spend that turn defending and then heal in the next one.

The difficult part comes from the fact that has lots of HP and you need to maintain focus to always give a 'perfect' response to all he does. This way you will probably survive to the end.

As a side note, War is actually susceptible to Blind status which makes his physical attack miss even more, but we don't have anything that can cast Blind reliably. We do have the Blind spell, but the hit rate is way too low and it just doesn't work that well.



Finally, let's start the battle by having Araki do a physical attack. In theory you could counter his elemental attacks but this can be difficult as the element changes all the time.



And here is his physical attack. As you can see, it misses.



On the other hand, when he does this... (the element may vary, as mentioned)



...you definitely want to defend...







...because this is what will follow! Without defending, this damage would have been about doubled. This way it's not so bad. This was the attack described in the book.



I use Araki as a main attacker in this battle, so he can also apply his limit break. It's the already seen before Falling Leaves.





Not bat at all.



After some time...



As Li Hua, Araki also gets his Level 2 limit break.



And here is our reward, the Sopia Core. Finally it does not get destroyed or stolen from under us.









And we're back. That wasn't too bad.











A cheery bunch. But it's just about to get worse.









Hey folks, looks like it's time for the first (or, rather, second) sacrifice!

But before we do that, Piu-Piu has some advice and a story to tell. Hold on to your hats!























Oh fine, go ahead, how bad can it be? (Spoiler: pretty bad)












Ahem. Getting back to the business at hand...









We don't really have a choice here...



























Ok, I guess let's see what they have to say about the possibility that they get chosen today.











And then we're back with Bachs.

























And so he puts his pet against us in a fight.









Level 42? Ha ha, no way we're winning this one! Incidentally his name is Herald. That would explain the trumpet-like accessory thingy.



Sure, we can attack...







...but this is what we get in return. So yeah, one hit KO.































So let's see here...





















So, who shall it be?

As you've seen from previous dialogue, we have to offer one person as a sacrifice (pillar). Marie is not an option at this time, which leaves Araki, Conor or Li Hua (names listed alphabetically).

Who shall we pick? Put your choices in bold, and if you can be bothered, tell us why you picked that person.


The choice is yours.