Part 9: "...and proceeds to unreasonably and mercilessly slaughter them."

Chapter 09: "...and proceeds to unreasonably and mercilessly slaughter them."
(Sands of Remembrance 2, Death Rat House, Nana 5, Aaron Aaron 4)




Here's my status going into the Sands for the second time.

Camil is pretty impressive physically right now--the Double Horn and Kelde Laude make a big difference. She still has quite a few battles to go before the Sagarmatha is mastered, at which point she'll swap the placements of the Kelde Laude and Sagarmatha.

Randolf is losing a little defense and HP by trading out the Salad, but he gets a Skill boost and he'll eventually have higher SP with the Ruined Story on. It's unlikely he'll get leveled that far, though; the Ruined Story is pretty much a stopgap item right now, filling places until I get a better all-Purpose item (that isn't a weapon or armor).



Thanks to the upgrades, I can take out a Red Scorpion in two rounds if I get two swings or a critical at least once, and she's got a 41% chance of a double swing and a 16% critical chance per turn. 75% of a two-round kill, more or less, and a one-round kill isn't compeletely impossible. If the Scorpion summons on their first round, I'll lose a bit more HP, since Camil can kill normal Scorpions in two swings. Blue Scorpions will require a Lightning assist, but they're still easy to kill in one round.

This is the difference actual optimization makes.



A black scorpion catches me in the tunnel on the way to C2, letting a red scorpion catch up, but it isn't that bad--this is my status afterward. I'm in pretty good shape! Especially since I can probably kill black scorpions with Camil to let Randolf regen SP; if he swaps out the Steam Bun for the Snow Maiden (to take advantage of its Recover SP when Defending ability), then he'll get quite a bit of SP back.



This red scorpion is a necessary fight on the way to B2, since you need to go left and there's no room to dodge.



Not a problem, though.

I kill a couple of black scorpions to regen SP, but Camil keeps killing them on the first turn before Randolf's Snow Maiden can kick in. First world problems, man. A third one dies on the way to C2, and Randolf actually gets to defend that time; the three battles have brought him back to 34/42 SP and they're both very near full SP. I also get two Scorpion Pincers! +100 gold a piece is nice.



I grab the pot in the house in C2, the chest near the exit to B2 (gold and a Glass Fragment), and the Glass Fragment here. Then I go south.



I enjoy grabbing this chest in B3. It's just funny to taunt the scorpion. Then I grab the 50 gold in the house to the left of it but don't mess with the red frog-shaped enemy inside; they'll appear elsewhere later.



That HP loss was from a single critical from a red scorpion, since I decided to thin it out in the courtyard below. See all those blue scorpions? The red scorpion runs towards you and triggers all of the blues to attack you. Killing the red from up here and rushing through the level before it respawns does a lot to increase your odds.

The reds aren't especially threatening at this point, since Camil can often take out a summoned scorpion by herself, but they still hit pretty hard.



I kill two more normal scorpions for SP regen to clear the way, but they hit Camil both times. It's kind of annoying.

So I switch her over to the Lucky Rabbit over the Marbled Meat at about this point. So long as I don't screw up and fight multiple reds, her max HP isn't TOO important; the additional drop rate and additional critical chance will do more. Up to an 81% chance of a two-round kill now, assuming no first-round summon.

And she's not at full HP anyway, because the normal scorpions are being opportunistic dicks.




Some careful weaving around a blue scorpion, and now we're on the upper-left side of C2.



It's kind of a pain to dodge the Green Horned Lizards in here. Once you fight one, the others start to move normally.



Still not too threatening to the new and improved team, though. That's Camil with Shout.



A blue scorpion is in the way. Even with a first-round Lightning assist, its group attack very nearly takes out Camil--that's in the realm of random variance.

Then the chest below it only has 5 gold. I use a Stamina Restore; that's the first healing item used.



I kill another two scorpions on the way back through C2. The Double Horn now gives +26 attack. Camil is even more of an SP-less wrecking ball now. Randolf's also back to full SP.




By some small miracle, I don't fight anything on my way through A2.



I promptly squander the miracle by deciding to check out the well in the middle of A2. Probably not the best idea; the screen's a bit of a clusterfuck around that area.

So this time I do it properly, taking advantage of the screen change to A2 to heal and the respawn timer on red enemies, fighting the red scorpions one-by-one. I only have to take out two to get there through the center, so it isn't too difficult.



Examining the well leads here. The chest contains a Glass Fragment.

The bigger problem is getting back; quite a few blacks and blues spawn around the well to start, so going left takes a bit of effort. I fight one black and evade the rest, but the time taken means I have to fight the screen's third red scorpion.

The Lucky Rabbit goes up to level 2 just before the fight, bringing Camil up to 31 Critical. She double-swings and crits once against the red scorpion, and the high-end variance on Randolf's Light Axe is enough to bring it down in just one round.

It's so beautiful.

I check out Blue Scorpion Clusterfuck Island, just out of curiosity, then decide to clear it out. It takes four kills of each (including one tense fight with two Scorpions and one Blue Scorpion), and in the process I get two of the blue scorpion drop, the Scorpion Body. It's +15 HP, the same as the Marbled Meat and just +1 better than the White Dragon Breath. Not bad, I guess? But still not very likely to get used.

In the process, I use an Energy Restore to revive Camil after an unlucky attack. Two healing items, now, out of my 14 non-equipped bottles. 5 more Stamina and 7 more Energy to go.

Randolf's leveled up the Magnificent Zenith along the way, too. +26 Skill and a lot of other bonuses, too.



Can't say it's not worth it, though. There's a planting spot in The Snow Fields, so that's next.



I make some poor calls on the screen to the south, A1, but I figure out the right route... Which is, do not go right, because it's a death trap. No room to run, a shitload of scorpions, right between the spawning points of two red scorpions.

The problem with Energy Restores being your only means of revival and the current two-person party is that if someone dies, the 25% heal means that you're probably going to get stuck in a revival loop until you die. That's part of what makes multiple enemies so dangerous--it vastly increases the odds that one character will go down in any given round, and that's often fatal.



First step: take out the two red scorpions near the start. I use the screen transition to heal after the first one.

(I get another one-round against a red on the second time! And it didn't even get to move. That feels incredibly great.)

Then I slowly work my way south.



There's another red scorpion up on the ledge.

Randolf's maxed the Rat Slayer; I stick him with the Karate Chopstick, just for general levelling. The +32 Skill on the Rat Slayer will be useful for boss fights, especially since it also gives +8 HP and a little attack.



Another +10 Attack level on someone I will never use as a physical fighter except in a last resort. That is kind of depressing.

By the way, look to the right. See that discoloration at the edge of the screen? Notably, fake walls are a lot more distinct in battle, especially in the pre-battle engagement period.




The back door leads to a gated area with a Glass Fragment chest.

On the way back, I kill a lizard that's being stubborn about getting in the way; it drops a Lizard Tail.



Lizard Tails are good items! +15 HP and Recovery Speed UP. It does what it says on the tin.

Nothing notable on the rest of the screen, though I fight some scorpions to regen HP and SP.



I fight a red scorpion. I'm now one-rounding them pretty often.





The second chest here is a rusty chest Camil can open, giving up another Glass Fragment.

Nana is by the north-center exit, the one that leads to the center of B2.



But for some reason this silence... I-It makes me feel uneasy.

Another Glass Fragment. If you talk to her again, she just ellipseses at you.




The building is just a hallway with doors at either end and lizards in-between.



I fight one or two blue scorpions, but the red is still dead and I pass through the center of B2 relatively unmolested.



We're here!



The tower has a spring, a save point, a chest, and a set of stairs upward.




As a weapon, the Zara Sword is the Sagarmatha 1.1, having the same +20 Attack bonus in addition to +6 Agility. Nothing massive, but a little more speed and a +6% flat increase in Extra Attack and Sporadic Guard helps.



In the All-Purpose slot, the Zara Sword is roughly equivalent to the Kelde Laude. If both are leveled, it's -1 Attack, -3 Critical, and +8 Agility, and since both have Extra Attack+1 to make Agility matter, that's a winning trade.

The problem is that the Zara Sword is nowhere near as good in the weapon slot. It's like the Fire Emperor Sword--it doesn't matter how good a weapon's All-Purpose effect is if it doesn't have the levels for the stat bonuses it needs to be competitive. If the Zara Sword isn't leveled, it's instead -4 Attack, -6 Critical, and +2 Agility, and no one's ever going to argue that that's better.

So the Zara Sword goes to Randolf instead, since he can use the +6 Agility. Plus, it can't hurt to have an Extra Attack +1 levelled for him.



This is the only other floor. It's not a very tall tower.



Talk to him again, and:

That's what it says in the "Demon King Chronicle," anyway.

Interesting that Kumo identifies this Tower in particular as being the one from Chapter One, "Tower." Of course, the question is whether him saying that actually means anything.

(Of course it does.)



The hole is a link back to the shortcut hub. It has two exits additional shortcut exits, along with the one back to The Nest at the bottom.



The one on the left is unbreakable; it's connected to another shortcut hole somewhere else. Inside is a chest containing a Glass Fragment and a hole.


Jump in?
>Yes

>> Are you sure?

>>> Yes



It's pretty much unnecessary. It's good to have the warning if you get here in really dire straits, but 26 damage is pitiful.

More importantly...




This is part of the real danger behind these holes. This doesn't break the bottles themselves--I'll be able to get all of my potions back when I hit up a spring again. But not every area at the bottom of a hole is as brief or as harmless.




The Zara Mantle, as an armor, is basically the White Dress 2.0, having the same small +2 Agility bonus at base but having +24 defense instead of +10.



As an All-Purpose, the Zara Mantle has a wide smattering of bonuses: +5 Attack, +12 Skill, +5 Defense, +4 Critical, and +10 Agility, in addition to the Fast Attack ability. Despite the +Skill, it is very definitely a fighter equip; Extra Attack+ means that Agility matters a lot more for physical attackers, and the critical's a nice bonus as well. Even so, it's a little too much of a generalist equip to use in normal circumstances.

It goes on Camil. The White Dress is at 2 Stars if she needs to use it for SP regeneration, and it'd be nice to have an option for Fast Attack that's better than the Nails. And hell, it'll be good to have leveled if I ever decide to run her as a mage for an area, since +18 Skill will almost be as good as the +20 I'm getting from most unleveled +Skill stuff.




It connects to the top of the cliff above The Nest, so I head back.




Nana and Kumo head out to their respective dungeons.





And they've even left notes to say so! How thoughtful of them.

(Notably, I missed a conversation with Hiku Kumo about Ares. I'll cover that in a catch-up update down the road.)

Correspondingly...





...Camil's Demon King Chronicle has updated again, whether by its own hand or by Camil's.



All that can damn well wait, though. I've got shopping to do.



I sell most of my scorpion parts (all three types are 100 gold apiece--not bad) and some other miscellenea and buy the Varnished Bird Wing, which gives +20 Defense and +8 Agility. It's pretty good armor.



It's also an excellent All-Purpose, giving +20 Skill, +5 Defense, +4 Critical, and +12 Agility. It also has two other powerful extra benefits, which I'll discuss later.



Then I head off to plant the Magic Bean I got before heading back to the shortcuts.

It's time for revenge... Against something I never actually fought or died against this time around. There's no reciprocity, so I guess it's just "venge"? Except that that's an archaic word that also means to take vengeance.

This is just one of the many ways that our language is poorly-equipped to deal with time travel. We need to fix that before we actually invent any. Let's call it prevenge.



Anyway, Death Rat House. The primary threat of the rats is that they hit about four times and do fairly good damage each time. One attack string will nearly kill someone at this level.

Camil switches the Sagarmatha and the Kelde Laude for this area, both to level up the Laude and because Sporadic Guard helps when there's that many chances to halve damage.

The intent here is to move into to trigger their swarming, then to engage them one at a time. They won't leave the house, so it's fairly easy to take them at your leisure. Two is fine. Any more than that is trouble.



That's five Killer Rats. I did not actually die here.



I know, I'm surprised as you are. They were so close that I could hit at least three with one Light Axe, and the rest came down to good luck with swings, crits, Sporadic Guard, enemy targeting, and enemies missing.

You see, some equipment has an invisible +evasion bonus. Camil's wearing the Lucky Rabbit, which has +4% evasion per level, and it's leveled twice--due to the 100% per level bonuses on it, that's +12% chance of avoiding any attack. It activates just enough to let both characters pull through.

(I told you the Lucky Rabbit was good.)

The Rat Fang is used in a recipe, so I never actually checked, but when equipped, it's apparently +1 Attack, +3 Agility, and Extra Attack +1. It's kind of disappointing; even if you come here and get one as early as you can, the Karate Chopstick gives the same ability with better stats.



These books... They help remind me of my purpose. I threw the ones I finished into that hole though, so there aren't too many remaining.

We may have already talked to him all the times we need to, but we still get a Glass Fragment for our troubles. Again:

A man's purpose begins to fade over time. 19 years. The man I respected most in this world continued to fight towards an impossible goal for 19 years. He was a great man.

I'm not quite sure who he's talking about here. If he's talking about Aeritz, then he's done quite an about-face from the storytime segments, hasn't he?

The hole is currently inaccessible, but remember it's there and that Kumo's throwing books about Zelphie down wherever it is. It ties into a neat thing later on.



Saying the name of this item properly requires you to play an awesome electric guitar riff on the last syllable. Unfortunately, that's very difficult to reproduce in text.




+40 Attack, 64 Range, +15 Skill, and +10 Defense as a weapon, and +20 Attack, +15 Skill, and +12 Defense as All-Purpose. Unfortunately, both forms have Slow Attack. If you can afford to use a Fast Attack item or to go last, then it's great! Otherwise, you're pretty likely to forget you have it.



Fake wall. The barrel accessable from the back has a Glass Fragment.




The chest has a Glass Fragment.



This area also reveals one more thing:



The name of the shortcut hub. It's called Her Memory.

Which is a pretty awesome detail, really--the area that connects all of the places Camil has traveled to, the places that she may be writing about (if the Chronicle isn't completing itself), is called Her Memory. It's appropriate!

And if you invest it with any actual meaning, then this suggests that Her Memory isn't actually "real," just like The Dragon Mountain wasn't "real." Her Memory connects the individual places she travels to, just as she's connecting pieces to finish the Chronicle. It's the physical representation of her story, just like The Dragon Mountain was to Randolf. If someone tried to visit it without her there, they wouldn't find anything.

Knowing the name also increases the importance of another, older question: who's the "His" of His Memory, the area behind Camil's new mirror?

Back to gameplay. This area may look familiar. Death Rat House is connected to the same hub area as the tower in the Sands, and you can complete Nana's story without talking to her in the Sands, so the bulk of the Sands is actually entirely optional so long as you have some way to get through Death Rat House.




When you talk to Nana outside the tower, she heads in. I ignore her, moving south to B2; there's still things I need to do in the Sands. I haven't seen all the screens yet.



Camil masters the Sagarmatha along the way, so I swap it and the Kelde Laude. I head from B3 to C3.

Then Camil masters the Lucky Rabbit, too.



Please compare this screen to the previous one, and remember that Camil has both Extra Attack +1 and Sporadic Guard.

She is currently kind of an unholy terror.

Randolf also masters the Magnificent Zenith around this point.



Beautiful, isn't it? He also got another +3 SP/+1 SP/+10 Attack level. I think this is his fourth? He switches over to +4 Attack about this point, which is the main reason he ends up with more base Attack than Camil; the +10 Attack levels just help him catch up.

Attack does influence spells, if generally not as much as Skill (the exact amount varies by spell), so more of it is handy.



Anyway, C3 is mostly an elevated plateau winding around a building with a fake wall.



Inside is the Samurai Wife Bento recipe and the Black Sesame, which gives +20 HP when equipped. It's the +HP record at this point.



There's also a chest with +10 gold.

Not much else of note. There's a reason I've just completely stopped describing enemies at this point--even red scorpions aren't very threatening now.

Back to B3. B3 has no treasure left, so it's really just a transitional screen back to A3, then A4, then the exit. I'll hunt down the four chests remaining some other time.



Four more achievements in His Memory: "Take 20 damage in one attack," "Find 30 Treasure Chests," "Defend 50 Times," "Collect 5 Recipes."



The next area unlocks.



These are all +stat crystals. Notably, Camil has a lot of +Agility crystals in His Memory, which is more reason to build her as a fighter.

Finally...



There's a recipe I can cook and haven't yet.



The Samurai Wife Bento is +5 Attack, +15 HP, +5 SP, and +20 Defense. I swap out the Energy Restore for it; Randolf is losing a little Skill and Agility, both of which he has plenty, in exchange for precious, precious durability. It's a good trade.

2 Hit Combo is a multi-hit spell of questionable utility. Too high a cost, too low an effect, and it has an HP use threshold... But it does benefit more from high stats than most skills, simply by virtue of hitting multiple times.



At this time, I grab two items from the Mole's tunnel which I didn't before. I knew about this Glass Fragment, I simply didn't bother to grab it. It twinkles against one of the walls near the end here.



I did NOT know about the Alma Moon here, which is in the exact same spot but twinkles much less often and only appears if you leave and then come back. Demon King Chronicle Thank you, Valkama.



+18 Attack, 32 Range. Critical Damage 1.5x is a pretty good ability! The problem is that it requires the +20% critical of the Snow Rabbit to be consistent at all, and then you need a Extra Attack + All-Purpose to be competitive offensively, and you also need a strong +Attack item, and then you're out of slots and also made of paper.



The All-Purpose is all over the place: +10 Attack, +7 Skill, +10 HP, +5 Defense, +4 Critical, +6 Agility. The Mind's Eye skill seems to be an awful attack spell with a high cost. I suspect it might be stronger in one specific case, but I'd have to test it.

Back in the tower...



My legs... I can't go any further. ...... Camil, please... Please give me a hand.

> Nod

Then Nana joins up.



The lack of All-Purpose slots is a pretty good indicator that Nana isn't here to stay. Her Soul Shackles equip gives +10 HP, +5 SP, and +10 Defense and is a completely normal armor--we can take it off or give it to other people, so it isn't very good at the whole "shackles" thing.

Notably, the Soul Shackles level up by 60% each time, not the usual 20%. So, fully leveled, they give +28 HP, +14 SP, and +28 Defense. They're pretty good armor.



+12 Skill, +10 HP, +5 SP, +8 Defense, +1 Critical and Slow Attack as an All-Purpose. It maintains the higher per-level bonus of the Armor version, so it'd normally be useful, but that skill is painful. Theoretically you can use it in boss fights, which will go multiple rounds anyway... Except that Slow Attack affects potions too, and you don't want to be stuck with "goes last" when you need healing. Fast Attack cancels it out and leaves you at normal speed, but most Fast Attack items have low stats. It doesn't get used.

That's it for this time. But first, story time!




She didn't know why this was. Without understanding why... she turned her back on the boy. The girl waited by the seashore. A long time ago, she searched through washed-up garbage with the boy here. She clutched the "Demon King Chronicle" to her chest with both hands, and she looked out over the sea.

Sigh... She saw an island far in the distance. There was a tower on that island. At the top, there was a small light.



The girl felt a strong compulsion. She needed to climb that tower. She felt as if the book clutched to her chest was compelling her to do so.

The girl set out alone on a boat rowing over the vast ocean under the quiet night sky.

It's probably just the translation, but I like to imagine that this means she just jumped on a self-rowing boat that goes between the Island and the Continent. It's very fairy tale-esque.

Aaron Aaron himself has nothing new to say, but he's published another edition of his theory on the Demon King Chronicle.



So, let me tell you about the ending I have come up with. Harold makes his appearance to face off against the 3 heroes from the previous chapters, Sera, Ritzea, and Randolf,



This is the ending that my research has lead me to. I do of course have a basis for this theory. And it is related to the "flower" incident that I explained previously. I believe that Ares, Flodnar and Aeritz all gave a special "flower" to a village woman. And I believe these "flowers" were originally Harold Diester's. I believe that those three stole some flowers from Harold Diester, which he had been working hard to raise while living on the island.

Once you take this into account, everything makes perfect sense. This gives us the real reason why Harold Diester worked on the book. To seek revenge. Harold Diester held a grudge against all three of them, and sought out revenge through his story. First, he wrote out their own stories in painstaking detail. These are very clear cut hero stories.



Harold Diester planned his revenge out his revenge to take place in his own fictional world. However, since Harold Diester passed away before he could complete the story, the world only knows the "Demon King Chronicle" as a simple tale of heroic deeds.

If you remember the first minute of this game, then it's very tempting to immediately dismiss this as bullshit. Remember, Camil heard a voice asking her to complete the story and "carry out my Will to the end." It's safe to assume that's Harold Diester. But if he was writing the story as revenge porn, then is he really going to get any satisfaction out of the process if someone else finishes it for him? I mean, he's dead. You can only hold a grudge so long.

But then again, there was that book in the chamber The Mole unlocked...




This does seem to lend some credence to Aaron's theory--it says "destroy everything," not "and be defeated in an inspiring tale of heroic triumph." That suggests that the Demon King is supposed to win.

But if that's the case, then how can Camil inherit that "Will"? I guess you could say that Randolf, Nana and Kumo are standing in for the heroes of their respective chapters, so... As the effective narrator of the meta-tale, the one who collects the pieces and finishes the story, I guess that makes Camil Harold Diester's proxy in the same way, so...

...huh. Well, I guess the question is whether the final boss is going to be one-on-three or three-on-one. Who gets to be the protagonist at the end? Maybe it's like (unrelated game spoiler) Breath of Fire 4 and we get to pick.

Well, next time, we'll complete the next step of her dastardly plan when we climb The Tower. I'll see you then.

Annihilation Record:

Annihilation count:29
[2014/03/28 19:54] Defeated at Sands of Remembrance by Scorpion.
[2014/03/28 19:39] Defeated at Sands of Remembrance by Scorpion.

Current winner: Cake Attack (26)
Next: Feldherren (35)

Battle Record:
2014/03/29/ 00:35:53
Demon King Chronicle

■Battle results
Playtime:07:34:53
Save count:106
Steps taken:40091
Battle count:352
Max damage:160
Max damage taken:46
Items:35 Types 85 Items

■Treasure Chests
The Nest: 5/8
Demon King's Castle: 21/26
The Hamlet: 29/31
The Snow Fields: 12/20
The Dragon Mountain: 6/6
Sands of Remembrance: 22/26
The Disease: 1/20
Unmapped area: 7/10

■Camil(13)
HP:47
SP:32
Attack:99
Defense:44
Range:20
Critical:49
Skill:15
Agility:42
・Kelde Laude(2)
・Zara Mantle (1)
・Lucky Rabbit(3)
・Double-horn(2)
・Sagarmatha(3)

■Randolf(12)
HP:69
SP:31
Attack:64
Defense:63
Range:32
Critical:8
Skill:95
Agility:46
・Zara Sword(1)
・Varnished Bird Wing(1)
・Samurai Wife Bento(0)
・Magnificent Zenith(3)
・Old Lady Anna's Poison Steam Bun(2)


■Top 10 defeats
Rat(130)
Monkey(57)
Scorpion(57)
Mutt(37)
Abominable Snow Monkey(30)
Turtle(26)
Scorpion(26)
Scorpion(24)
Turtle(20)
White Dragon Wisp(15)

Glossary:

No new entries.