Part 1: "Please, give this story an ending."

Chapter 01: "Please, give this story an ending."
(The Nest, Randolf 1)










A figure moves through the light, and...




Welcome to The Nest!




Currently, all Camil has are the (non-equippable) clothes on her back; her inventory is empty.

The first step is to talk to the only person we can find.


It looks like we have a new arrival. My name is Laylaria. It's wonderful to meet you. There should be one vacant room. I'll show you the way.




There was someone staying here until a little while ago... Unfortunately, The Coward took care of him... So, now we have a vacant room. Please, make yourself at home.

Let's!



Oh wait oh god what's happening




Welcome to the battle system! Demon King Chronicle has on-map encounters, with enemies getting placed on the battlefield based on where you encounter them. Each time you run into an enemy, the screen goes blue, and there's about a five second period where additional enemies can join in. You can't change areas during this time, and there's no way to prevent a fight once you've encountered an enemy.



Enemy placement matters because attacks and skill have areas of effect, and therefore multiple enemies placed closely together can be hit at once. Non-targeted enemies take about half damage. Despite that, you normally don't want to engage multiple enemies without a very good reason--damage adds up quickly and you're rarely given much room for error.

(Notably, your party's placement is irrelevant once combat actually starts, so that's one less thing to worry about.)


Thankfully, the Demon Flies are very weak; one attack from Camil takes out two of them, since they just have 2 HP.



This is the motivation for taking on multiple enemies at once: bonus experience. That's the smaller number in parentheses, and it's not included in the left number shown. It's percentage-based, so it can be a pretty significant boost if you often fight multiple enemies.

The Millet item that was dropped is a good opportunity to show off one of DKC's more unconventional aspects:




You can equip anything in your inventory to your three All-Purpose slots, and every item has its own stat boosts. The Millet is a healing snd cooking item, but it also provides a small HP boost.

Attack is physical damage done, Range is the AOE of your normal attack (represented as an angle, with 360 being a full circle), Skill is your ability to use Magic, HP is HP, SP is MP, Defense reduces damage taken, Critical is critical rate for normal attacks, Agility affects turn order.



Finally, notice the yellow part of the HP bar. A portion of lost HP and SP regenerates at the end of each battle, but it takes a little time--if you're continually getting into fights one after another, you won't have time to finish healing.

With that explained, there's two objects to inspect in the room:





The desk is a save point.



The bookshelf is filled with more and more information as you progress through the game.



There's not too many areas to explore in The Nest right now; most of the other occupants have their doors closed.




I'm busy right now.

The little slips of paper next to the doors are nameplates. Laylaria's room is to the left of the Mole's room, but it's locked.



So are all three of these rooms. From the left, they belong to Hiku Kumo, Nana Eluonto, and Randolf. We'll meet all three later, naturally.


Even if you don't understand most things at first, if you take it a little at a time, they should quickly become second nature.




The spring here heals you and has an additional benefit later, once you have Empty Bottles to use.



The shop isn't accessable yet.




Neither is the treasure chest down the stairs, and there doesn't seem to be anything else down there.

Time to leave The Nest, then.



The world map! It, as well as the underground area, both share the music of whatever area you enter them from. So, for instance, The Nest music is still playing right now.



These rats make up all the enemies in this first area. They're fairly tough (by our pathetic standards; they have about 10 HP and we do 2-4) and they often come in groups.




If you've played Ocarina of Time, then you've got the rough idea: once we get Magic Beans from treasures spread through the world, we can access some areas like this.




We can take one rat. Two is dicey. Three is a death sentence.



...as a two-rat encounter aptly displays, thanks to a poorly-timed critical and bad luck with damage rolls.

Let's not go that way, shall we? Not yet, anyway.




Well, that's direct. Let's try the right exit, then; there's nothing on the left.





It's Randolf, the second of our new housemates! (Nestmates?)

You get a Glass Fragment every time you find one of them out wandering the world, and that's the unimportant part.



Which says something, because Glass Fragments are pretty important! Empty Bottles aren't anywhere near as rare as they in Zelda, but they're still precious. And right now, +1 attack is a pretty big boon all on its own.

To the right is The Seashore. We don't want to go there yet. Demon King Chronicle tends to let you wander, but there's still a fairly clear progression, and that's about a level 20 area.



Finding Randolf also opened the shop and bottle exchange for business!


Hey there, nice to meet you. I'll teach you some "Magic" at no charge.


You can use it in battle by choosing the "Skill" command.

Fire Wave is incredibly useful! Large AOE, and by our current standards the damage is pretty massive.




Aaron Aaron doesn't want us poking around in the back rooms, apparently, and everything in the shop is above our 0 gold price range. Let's move on.

As you find the other residents throughout the world, their rooms also open. Each time you find them, you'll be allowed to see a little more of their backstories.






x month x day

Looks like he can't sleep tonight. Just like always, I start reading the story of the White Dragon to him. Normally he's such an apathetic kid, but when he hears this story, his eyes light up. When the Hero defeats the dragon, he is usually already fast asleep. It's been exactly 4 years since I took him in. His body is still a little on the weak side. I want to raise him to be strong.



Unfortunately, after that, Randolf will step in and block you from reading any more. He doesn't say anything in particular, though: just "......"

There's also another book over to the side.


Looks to be the remains of an old book.

And there's a recipe over here;



The kitchen is one of the things you can buy from the store, but it's 100 gold--out of our price range.

The bookshelf has updated:




So, let's go kill some rats.



Normal attack. They just about kill us in return.



Fire Wave. Skills have a much lower damage reduction for multiple targets, about 75% instead of 50%.



The Rat Meat is a +3 HP bonus; not bad.



That said, Fire Wave does have two downsides at the moment. First, we only have the SP to use it once. Second, we can't usually use it immediately. A lot of skills in this game have a "must be below this much HP" restriction, with stronger ones typically having stricter requirements.

Past several more rats, and...




It's worth noting that most enemies move a little faster and get a little more aggressive when you're already engaged with one. That means that you're basically required to kill all three rats here at once. Have Fire Wave ready.

The reward is worth it, though!



Empty Bottles have no All-Purpose stat boosts, but they're used at the Spring to hold potions. You can have as many potions as you have Empty Bottles.





You might think that there's basically no reason to ever use Stamina Restores, but Healing Magic is essentially non-existent in this world and Energy Restores only heal 25% HP. (And even if you did have healing spells, you may've noticed the complete lack of a "skill" option in the menu.)

That said, the stat boosts of the Energy Restore, particularly the massive SP boost, mean that it's best to take one along this early. Being able to use Fire Wave more often is a lifesaver, and you can simply unequip and use it when you need to top off your SP.




The door we passed earlier leads to the first dungeon, the Demon King's Castle. Camil leveled up again on the way, gaining the same stats as her first level (+2 HP/SP/Attack).

We'll start the first dungeon next time!