The Let's Play Archive

Chaos Rings

by ivantod

Part 77: Battle at the Lookout Tower







Last time, our conversation with Marie got interrupted with some noisy disturbance.





Let's go and have a look what's up...







































So we have a new transporter in one of those previously empty rooms (in case you were wondering what they are for!).



Also this, so we may as well go and have a chat with Piu-Piu (how bad can it be, really?).





















We can buy improved clothes for Darwin and Marie and also new sword for Darwin.







Marie does not need a better weapon since she still has that staff that we stole from one of the bosses!



Let's see... any comments from anybody?







And some more info from Lessica, as always...

















We should go and use the new transporter, really--the fate of the world hangs in the balance and all that. But you know, I feel like sidequesting. And there is no better time than now, as they say.



You might recall that in the last dungeon there were plenty of those contraptions that we couldn't activate because Conor was not with us. Well, let's rectify that and see what happens. So we'll change our party to Darwin and Conor and...



...head back to where we just came from.



There's four of these situated in connecting screens that we can activate.



Activating all four makes another of the Pandas appear near the end of the area!



This time, it's the Panda Punk. But he's no more difficult than others.





I guess good thing we did this before Conor was sacrificed?



And now we can change to Darwin and Marie and activate the new teleporter.





Zenith Bound it is. Japanese title is much more literal, "Passage to the lookout tower". It's also true, because that's where we are going!



This is not a very long hallway with some staircases.



Funnily, most of random battles in this area are this formation, two of the first bosses from the very beginning of the game. Now they die in one hit each.

Why ARE there random battles here anyway?




Eventually we run into Li Hua and Conor. What insights may they offer us?





Not quite as profound as I'd hoped. But no matter, because...



...we have a boss to fight.



In a show of mercy, game lets us change our party here one last time before proceeding. But we're already set up so we can go on. Incidentally, Darwin & Marie is pretty much going to be our go-to party for significant part of the rest of the game.

Anyway...




















Right. It's a very large snake.















It's time for a "boss fight" against tentacle. It's kind of not a real fight. I say "kind of", because you very definitely CAN die, but you can't really win as you'll see in a moment.





He has 12,000 HP so I have equipped the Necrosis spell to get a guaranteed damage against him (there is a reason for wanting to finish this battle fast).





He has a bunch of attacks like this, some magical, some physical but all of this is manageable.



He also heals at the end of every turn, but only 600 HP, so that's not too bad either.

I got a bit lucky here, so he never got to use his most dangerous attack, "Megiddo Blessing". That one is pretty nasty since apart from normal damage it also causes random bad status effects on your characters (poison, blind, silence etc.).

There are two ways to combat this. One is to use an item (Lavender) which dispels everything, but the problem is it cannot be bought so you have to rely on what you found so far in chests or as monster drops (I literally had a total of one in my inventory at this point!). The other option is the "Format" spell which does just the same thing. But your mage can get silenced as a result of this attack so you should also equip an accessory that reduces the chance of Silence being able to work. I actually equipped both the spell and the accessory on Marie in anticipation, but didn't need to use it since he never attacked with this.

Incidentally, Megiddo
(מגידו) is a place in Israel, site of several battles of the ancient era. More importantly, the word Armageddon is derived from this name.



In any case, when you do about 6000 HP of damage, he'll do this, a full heal back to normal, and that's the end of the fight for now.

What happens after the battle is best viewed as video, so please use the link below:

VIDEO: The True Story of Destroyer (make sure to switch it to 720px HD for much better quality!)






...and we're back here.





What are you going to do, Darwin? It's sacrifice time, once more.

Perhaps Piu-Piu will offer some comfort?



















Well. Let's see.



























It's time for another Orlando flashback!













My father?
Those bandits back there were poor. In their desperation, they had no choice but to attack.
War has turned a lot of people into refugees, many of whom wound up here. Your father came here to help them.
Oswald Whelan was key to the peaceful resolution of the territory dispute up north. He's famous as far out as Ornia.
Wow... my father...
Strength isn't power--it's having the firm determination to get something done. That's how I see it, anyway.
...





























And finally, Marie.













Unfortunately, we can't delay any further, so...





No choice here.





But, Conor wants to ask something...

















So Bachs activates that vision field or whatever it is, and...









...apparently it's enough.







So, let's see... first, Lessica has some more info about that last battle...





And now, here are our choices.











As you can see, Marie is still not an option (will she ever be? I'm not telling!), so the only choices are Li Hua or Conor. Based on discussions last time, I understand that the preferred choice for the next sacrifice is Conor (truthfully, he does have his good moments too), but if you have a compelling case why it should be Li Hua instead, feel free to post it and we'll see. As should be obvious by now, the sacrificed character really is gone from the rest of the game so bear that in mind!