Part 23: Appendix 1: "It will find its way into someone's heart, and that will give rise to a new story."

Demon King Chronicle Appendix 1: "It will find its way into someone's heart, and that will give rise to a new story."
(Reverse Order challenge, Final Battle Secrets)

There's several things to show off today.

The first requires me to play through the game again. Thankfully, grabbing the Book of Manslaying and the Zara items still works as well as ever.



Grabbing the Hair trivializes the part before that almost as well, too; +39 SP (fully leveled, it's +62) means a lot of Fire Waves, and +20 Skill lets you kill in one less hit pretty often.



Notably, you can't read this book while Kumo's still here. No Zelphie entry ridiculously early on.

The rest is pretty standard; you saw solo Camil speedrunning last time, in the missed content update. I do change up two things, though, on top of actually getting Fire Wave early on.

First, I run through the Seashore after The Snow Fields. I want to talk to Randolf there to grab the Glass Fragment.



This set-up meets my needs there almost exactly. Any tough fight starts with Camil Guarding until the enemy brings her down to 70% health and using Shout.



Then my 101 Agility ensures Sporadic Guard always works, so she can use a Stamina Restore and then sweep.



Sometimes this works better than others, but I get through without incident and with just one reset.

Second, once I've gotten all of Randolf's Fragments, I go and get him. I'm actually doing stuff this time around, I want him levelled.

In the process, I discover something:




Huh. I guess the Avalanche Spirit respawns; this means you can get two Snow Maidens, and since there's also two of the enemy that drops the Demon Wings, you can also get two I Believe I Can Fly! items. A permanent +4 Agility is useful, but it may be worth it to keep a Demon Wings around--it's a +20 Agility All-Purpose, and there aren't too many of those. It's more mage-oriented than the Parts, too.

The rest pretty much goes as you'd expect. (Most of) The Tower, The Demon King Castle Part 2, finish The Tower, The Seashore (again), The Mirage, The Leviathan Depths, The Disease. I talk to everyone at every location (except one, which I'll explain in a moment), because I want to maximize my bottle count.

I actually died against The Tower's boss; his Purgatory was doing 60 damage to a party with about that much max HP (he killed Randolf outright once), and he used it basically every turn. It wasn't pretty. Side effect of my speedrunning, I guess, even after grinding up six Wet Stuff. I do get to end the winning run with a Happy Ending Supremacy Passion Burst, though, which feels pretty good.

I get through The Disease again.




It's not very hard--both characters are kitted out to be absurdly fast and absurdly strong for this point in the game. The Demon Wings are stupid good, guys.

I did die twice on the screen with the Dirty Clothes, mostly because I was bored and fought too many things at once. The third time was just getting bad luck with RNG while, again, not paying attention. Being too strong is actually kind of a problem in this game, because "too strong" very rarely means "basically invincible."

Then I got to the end and realized I forgot to pick up the White Will Stone. Dammit. Well, I needed levels anyway...

So, what did I run through basically the entire game for, exactly?

Remember the two ways into Cave Chronicle? The "front door" is the hole in The Nest where Laylaria threw away all of those ruined stories. The back door is in The Snow Fields. The back door is always available, while the front door is unlocked by defeating The Coward.

Exiting from the jail or the church via the money options puts you at the hole in The Nest. So what happens if you exit that way when you still haven't defeated Laylaria?

This is effectively a challenge run of the last leg of Cave Chronicle. Defeating Laylaria does three other things for you, and if you skip her, then you can't get any of the associated rewards. Let's go down the list, from least to most painful. Defeating Laylaria gives you (and therefore, here, you lose):

1) lets you talk to Kumo outside the hole (1 Glass Fragment),
2) lets you break into her room (Hair, and therefore a Chatty Barber), which also...
3) ...unlocks the potted plant (the Black Ladybug armor),
4) and fulfills one of the flags needed to unlock the final dungeon (The Aegis and Delusion Cocoon Armors, the Baby's Breath weapon, about ten Glass Fragments, the area's enemy drops, the best grinding spot in the game, and all of the money and character/item levels you would have gotten there)

This hurts. This hurts a lot. Entering Cave Chronicle with Aeritz at level 1 and no leveled items is particularly unpleasant, since it renders him largely irrelevant (if you can grind him there, then you probably aren't having problems anyway), and losing both of the best Sporadic Guard items is also painful... Especially since number 3, the Helm, drops off enemies only available once you've already passed the hardest parts. The Trauma All-Purpose is also in The Imagination, so the available list of Sporadic Guard sources is:
1) Daybreak Club All-Purpose (pretty good)
2) Sagarmatha All-Purpose (outdated)
3) Turtle Shell All-Purpose (hahahahaha)

That's it.

And, notably, I entered Cave Chronicle at level 30 and left it at about level 45. That's about 45 points of attack for Camil, about 50 for Randolf (his levelling slows down later) and around 40-60 HP for everyone. And without the Black Ladybug, Randolf has a lot less SP to work with.

So I grind up to level 31 in The Disease (died once to goats; accidentally let the enemy Shout while levelling Slimy Goop), pick up some item levels, buy the Dragon Slayer crystal and the Three-Legged Frog, and then drop down the hole.



Camil had just above 480 HP and still very nearly died. The randomization on this jump is kind of bullshit and will probably kick my reset count up quite a bit here.



Camil is not especially impressive here compared to her usual Postgame Death Goddess self; she's lacking about 30 Attack from levels and really wants a good Sporadic Guard item. Still, fully leveled Lucky Rabbit + Zara Sword is a 24% chance of not taking damage, and combined with that 60% half-damage she should be good enough at not dying to trigger Shout sometimes, at which point she'll be much more competent.



Randolf really misses the +SP of the Black Ladybug; he's not terribly sustainable as-is, especially without Recover SP when Defending. Still, all we really need to do is get to the church... So hopefully this'll be enough. (Potion supplies are 15 Stamina/11 Energy, by the way.)



I want to see if I can get Aeritz here to crack 1000 damage taken. You know, for comedy value. He's certainly not managing much else here.

I get into a fight with a yellow Orc, and...



...wait, what? Okay, I didn't buy Star Fall Magic, so that's expected, but... Aeritz, what happened to Healing Magic...?

Man, he really is going to be completely worthless here. Oh dear.



This is one full turn of attacking. It is perfectly reasonable to guess that I died here.



I said Camil wasn't quite her usual Postgame Death Goddess self, but come on, she's still Camil. Certain things are to be expected.




Not that it's easy on my potion stocks. I use a I Believe I Can Fly! before the next fight for the buff and it's still pretty painful. The Yellows chase you, remember, and their detection radius is pretty damn big.



Then I retreat too far against Shelob here (there was an Orc pursuing and I didn't want to fight it at the same time) and have to refight it. 2 more Energy Restores lost. I just let it kill me at that point--things are going too badly.

The second time around, I realize that the Energy Ups I have stored actually heal 50% or so in addition to the stat boosting. I should use them at the bottom of the drop instead of potions!



So naturally I use them all at once instead of spreading them out, because I'm good at video games.

I die an unlucky death to a Yellow Orc. The problem with them, in addition to their relatively massive hit point pools and high damage, is that they can summon. The ones they summon can't summon, but they're only a little less strong and tough. Fights are unfortunately really, really luck-based, especially when you consider my Sporadic Guard odds.

Which means I really, really can't afford to roll those dice often. I need to avoid them.



The next time, I'm wiser about using my stat boosters.



Veer left here...



...and if I veer right and I'm very careful, I don't have to fight these ones either.



This one's a bit more complicated--basically go down, make him follow you, circle around him counter-clockwise--but with him avoided, I've proved I can escape the first screen without any fights! That's a big deal.



Apparently Shelob can just kill Randolf from full if neither Guard goes off. That's annoying...

Does let me Hero Supplement, though, especially since Randolf is faster than Camil before I Believe I Can Fly! gets used. That means she can heal him up to full afterward.



Correction: I forgot, they CAN summon. Fuckballs.



And then Camil gets killed by Sporadic Guard not activating on a 12% (after Yell's 150% boost to Agility) and through 24% evasion.

And then I die to the exact same 12%*76% against the next Goblin I have to fight.

This run is kind of bullshit, guys. I'll give it about five more tries, then I'm grinding to 35, by which I mean "I'm using debug mode to get to level 35." I could grind it manually, but it really wouldn't prove anything.

Death by Red Orc on the first screen (dodging mistake), death to Shelob ("okay, Randolf's dead, but Camil just needs to survive one turn and it sometimes passes its turn. I need Sporadic Guard to activate once on either of two hits, or one evasion, and..."), death to 496 damage fall (are you fucking kidding me), death to Shelob (I'm not even going to fucking talk about that one)...




Holy crap, I made it to the third screen!



Fight a normal Orc, swing wide around this guy, fight another normal Orc...

...die to Sporadic Guard not activating and Camil not evading for four attacks in a row.

I give it one more try, then I take a break.

It's at this point that I realize there's one more trick I haven't tried yet. I drop down, grab the Long Sword, and go off to do some more item levelling. In the process, I kill the Great Rat; he goes down like a chump so long as you know he's there and you've gotten through most of the game.



It's time to give Cutthroat a whirl.

I've mentioned the skill, but I've never used it on-camera, so here's a quick refresher: Cutthroat is a skill that costs 12 SP, has a 95% HP threshold, and does minor damage... But it also has an Agility/2% chance of killing enemies that don't resist it.

The HP threshold isn't a concern--taking off the Mask or Parts, exiting the menu (so HP drops to the new max) and reequipping them brings Camil to about 90% max HP, and the after-battle regen effect stops as soon as you reach full HP, even if your HP drops below max afterwards. For Shelob and the Balrog, I can just switch back to her smashy set-up, since I'm pretty sure they're instant-death immune.

(I realize a little later that the Zara Sword is slightly better than the Laude here. Whatever, no point in changing the screenshot.)



On the first use...



...it's an unqualified success! One hit, one kill. Okay, I think I can do this now.



The minor Orc fight after Shelob takes three turns, since Cutthroat fails the first time and they summon, but it succeeds the next two times. First turn success on the next one, takes two turns on the one after, first turn next...

...and I finally make it to the fourth screen. Time to see how the Balrog fight goes!



Not bad, actually. This is his double-hit Flame after two Sporadic Guards. The party-hit Flame does about 60, 30 when guarded. Randolf takes more damage, and Camil gets an early Yell off, so he spends most of his turns frantically trying not to die while Camil cleans house.




I'm in pretty good shape to finish this up, provided I manage to steer clear of Sharkey. And I manage to get through the next two screens without fights.



Yeah, don't mind me, guys. Just keep doin' your thing.

Through the tree door!



I book it like hell--there's no way in hell I can kill the enemies that guard the Dagger chest.

Thankfully...



...that's done! I have the money to get back four times over.



Father... Mother... my Sister too...





This really, really does not end well for her. Even insta-death Camil still does 100 per hit to her, and Randolf's Dragon Slayer does a neat 600.

There's no dialogue for after this. Aaron Aaron might have if I'd done this even earlier, but, well...



...he's gone off to go do his possessed thing. Shouldn't have talked to the Mole, and I am not doing the game again to check if he does have dialogue. I am crazy enough to replay the game for this challenge and this bit of dialogue, but there are limits.

Total resets for this little side adventure: 14. Total annihilation count: 51.

There's still a few more things to show off, though. First, I go back to my primary save file. Randolf's Glossary entry is unlocked at level 45, but Camil's is unlocked at level 50. You are highly unlikely to get to level 50 naturally; I used debug mode for quick levels.

Let's leave that for a moment, though.



You might have remembered I said the Demon King Chronicle is invincible in the last fight. This is more-or-less true... But only more or less. There's a way to harm it.

It's a really, really dumb way.

You see...




...if you get a bare-handed character's Attack over 500, then they can hurt the Demon King Chronicle with normal attacks. And no, that's not a pre-scrolling image of its health bar. It really does have that much HP.

Yeah, I know, "what the fuck," right? Even if you have the Starcaller and Long Sword fully leveled, you're only going to get to about 480 attack. You need Camil at about level 55 to break 500 naturally. In practice, this means that you need to pop The Perfect Hero or Hero Supplement to do it. Killing the book this way takes goddamn ages, even with the +attack items I'm missing... And if you do, there's nothing special for it. You just go straight into Harold's dialogue.

At least spending a lot of time with Camil in Perfection status makes it easier to show off the other secrets in this fight. Look up at that screenshot again. See the "Rainbow Iris" status? Look back two screens above that. Notice how her Skill has doubled?

The Perfect Hero not only increases Camil's stats, it turns the Chronicle's attacks to your advantage, making them confer buffs instead. Postscript Setting is the one that gives you Rainbow Iris. In addition to the stat boosts...



...it gives you access to the most powerful attack in the game.

(Yes, it really is named "Camil Beam.")




The numbers may not look impressive, but this Camil is kind of gimped by the three-sword set-up she's got going on there. She's doing about 100 with normal attacks.

Appearance-wise, it's a single downward beam of light, followed by sparkles. It also makes a squeaky hammer noise. It is anticlimax in a can, especially with how long you generally have to try to get it.

See, the Demon King Chronicle doesn't attack very often, and it doesn't seem to have any AI that makes it more likely to attack, or to attack Camil, when The Perfect Hero is up. IF you do get it, Rainbow Iris lasts about three turns, and you're incredibly unlikely to have the MP to use Camil Beam on the first turn. And if you try to use it on the last form, you're probably going to get denied those turns, thanks to his damage and his "you can't act for several turns" unique spell.

And you get it only after you've beaten the final boss and most of the optional content, thanks to the chest-based lock on The Perfect Hero.




The other status is Love Flag, activated by Death Foreshadowing or Betrayal Foreshadowing (and probably Goodbye Foreshadowing, but the Chronicle wasn't being accomodating) with The Perfect Hero active. Like Rainbow Iris, it also doubles Skill. As a Flag status, it also triggers the Chronicle to use Foreshadowing Collection, but Foreshadowing Collection has no effect on Love Flag; in effect, it shields you from the Chronicle by making it waste its turns.

(And makes it harder to get Rainbow Iris.)

Finally, as penance for how long this update took to make...



...here's what Camil Beam usually does, damage-wise, by the point you can get it.

Let's end on a good note after that particular bit of dumbness, shall we? The final Glossary entry!

That said... There's a couple of things to point out first. Remember the first update?



As The Imagination reveals, the one speaking at the start is Ares. You might also remember that Harold's text in The Imagination was in blue, and he stored his memories in the Blue Will Stone.

■Camil
This story's main character.
She carries the Yellow Will Stone so it is
her destiny to guide the story to its ending.

"Please carry my Will to the end." Yellow text. Camil is carrying Ares's Yellow Will Stone, and they tell you that right in the first few seconds of the game. That's the power of clever writing, people.

And that's a wrap!

Thank you to the thread in general, you've been a great audience.

Special thanks to Valkama, who provided a lot of valuable information about a game whose mechanics I didn't really understand (and pointed me to a resource that helped me to better understand it). Sometimes it's little things like knowing the formula for Cutthroat that make the difference. Special thanks additionally to HenryEx, who did the same and also made several useful mods. Without Debug mode, I wouldn't have been able to show off some of the game's more obscure corners!

There'll be one more post, collecting a few of the story bits and arguments in the thread, but that's it.

I plan to LP another game near and dear to my heart in a few months... Another game with a strange set of poorly-documented mechanics and a surprisingly good story. I hope you'll join me when the Saga Frontier 2 thread goes live!

One last documents post for the road.

Annihilation Record:

New entries:

Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Shelob.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Shelob.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Orc.
Defeated at Cave Chronicle by Shelob.
Defeated at The Disease by Deformity.
Defeated at The Disease by Deformity.
Defeated at The Disease by Deformity.
Defeated at The Disease by Deformity.
Defeated at The Tower by Two-Headed Demon.
Defeated at The Seashore by Toothy Piranha.

Total annihilation count: 51

Contest results:

Winner: HenryEx (76)
Runner-up: EagerSleeper (98)
Third place: Pladdicus (100)

Battle Record:
2014/08/15/ 11:59:20
Demon King Chronicle

■Battle results
Playtime:23:38:16
Save count:232
Steps taken:113687
Battle count:1394
Max damage:632
Max damage taken:605
Items:54 Types 145 Items
Turns to defeat Last Boss：53(Best Record53)
Turns to defeat Hidden Boss：40(Best Record40)

■Treasure Chests
The Nest: 8/8
Demon King's Castle: 26/26
The Hamlet: 31/31
The Snow Fields: 20/20
The Dragon Mountain: 6/6
Sands of Remembrance: 26/26
The Tower: 11/11
The Seashore: 12/12
The Mirage: 10/10
Leviathan Depths: 5/5
The Disease: 20/20
The Imagination: 32/32
Cave Chronicle: 46/46
Unmapped area: 10/10

■Camil(50)
HP:259
SP:89
Attack:423
Defense:89
Range:32
Critical:47
Skill:113
Agility:80
・Praying Mantis Axe(3)
・Mask of Determination(3)
・Starcaller(0)
・Aegis(3)
・Holy Sword that Cuts the Dark(3)

■Randolf(50)
HP:216
SP:103
Attack:285
Defense:200
Range:64
Critical:14
Skill:183
Agility:72
・Dagger(1)
・Cordelia(3)
・Delusion Cocoon(3)
・Varnished Bird Wing(3)
・Black Ladybug(3)

■(42)
HP:200
SP:80
Attack:325
Defense:152
Range:48
Critical:22
Skill:75
Agility:81
・Baby's Breath (3)
・Three-Legged Frog(3)
・Helm(3)
・Footfalls of Hope(3)
・Parts(3)


■Top 10 defeats
Rat(305)
Green Mud Man(178)
Conflict(160)
Toothy Piranha(157)
Mermaid(143)
Deformity(98)
Abominable Snow Monkey(97)
Monkey(90)
Wake-Eater(89)
Merman(84)

Glossary:

■Camil
This story's main character.
She carries the Yellow Will Stone so it is
her destiny to guide the story to its ending.