Part 10: Chapter X: There Is Nothing Romantic About These Three Kingdoms
Chapter X: There Is Nothing Romantic About These Three Kingdoms
"A shop there has developed a new type of sword. Maybe we can commission some."He's talking about the Sabre, that we just got from the well in the other town. However, we will skip on the offer, as a beautiful weapon awaits us soon.
"There is a wise priest near the castle. You should meet with him."There's an 8-bit RPG classical trick to this town, where you have to leave town, but not so much that you go to the world map, but rather journey along the gate of the town until you reach a hidden house. Here, a man will raise you a level, but we'll wait on this.
Overall, the town that Yuan Shao was guarding really has nothing but a free level. With that, our expedition into Jingzhou begins with a western march from Nanyang until we come across here:
Inside here is a single house with a man in it:
"Zhao Yun. I'm Yi Ji. My friends, Ma Liang and Ma Su have some information for you. If you go south from here, you'll find their house. They are waiting to meet you."-For some reason, there is a "Yes/No" option.-
"Maybe now the people of Jingzhou can stop dieing [sic] in senseless wars."
When he means "south", he literally means south, and there's even a road to guide you, and all the not-road is just open space with nothing in it.* Shortly after, we come across the other single inhabited place.
*As usual.
"Zhao Yun? I'm Ma Su. My brother Ma Liang is waiting for you in a house south-east from here. Please go meet him and listen to his story."What, will he send me to the house east of his, and make me listen to his brother's story, which he will send me to another house and so on?
In any case, the path is still set out in stone for the player. At least the Dong Zhuo, and Yuan Shao sagas didn't have roads on them.
I didn't want to hear your stupid story anyway!
However, that's no Ma Liang's house..
"This is Zhuge Liang's house. It seems empty."
It's only the smartest person in the Three Kingdoms era China, who of course is hiding from the screaming fanboys who raid his house routinely, such as this guy.
Oh.. might as well get over with it.
"Zhao Yun? I'm Ma Liang. I was hoping I would meet you soon. I have a favor to ask. Four governors are fighting over Jingzhou. The common man is suffering for it. Please stabilize Jingzhou and release the people from their needless infighting."That was the worst story ever, Liu Bei's been telling us that story since Yuan Shao kicked our asses in Nanyang. Also, "infighting" is the apparent buzz word for this saga, is it's also the word Liu Bei uses to describe Jingzhou.
We're also apparently the heroes of Jingzhou, as originally Liu Bei was really just another governor fighting for the prefecture, which everyone is obsessed with. Cao Cao and Sun Ce are also fighting for it.
This is not a warlord battle, it is in fact a commander battle. From here out, they come in numbers, and if they are especially nasty like this, it's usually not worth it, or at least until we get our weapon upgrade, which will come soon.
Most of them are in general fights in the future, in which it should be obvious who is, and who are the commander mooks.
General battles on the other hand:
"Take them out before they are ready."
Are still amusing as hell.
"This is my tiger Wang."Let's eat, Grandma
Punctuation makes all the difference!
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
It seems Wang here isn't too pleased with risqué double entendres.
"It seems Chansha Castle is inhabited by an old tiger. Even though he's old, he is still very powerful. Could he be one of the five?"
"In Lingling Castle is a great wise man who Shui Jing referred to as Feng Chu. He answers to Pang Tong."Taoist name "Rising Dragon" if two names aren't enough for you to memorize.
Meet my favourite weapon type of this game.
Although it is a slight downgrade from the Trident A.P wise:
It hits twice, and this ain't no NES Final Fantasy, if you OHKO a Rebel in the barrage of arrows, the next attack goes to another enemy that is alive. Also, with Zhang Fei's troops on the constant rise, but no foreseeable difficulty rise, his damage will only get more nastier to the point where he can decimate random battles with or without commanders in it. There's also two other very pleasant surprises to come in the next town.
And guess when we're going to discover these surprises?
"Zhao Yun. This castle will be very difficult to conquer."
In comparison to the chimps we've been fighting so far, he has a fair point, this is probably the worst thing seen since Yuan Shao, however, Yuan Shao was worse.
Partly due to the fact that they have to haul around dead weight, where Yuan Shao meant business.
I forgot to mention, Dan Fu learned this in the Yuan Shao saga, which is a heal all tactic, which is nothing short of fantastic.
He also has a death quote, unlike everyone else who don't say anything, or are narrated.
They must have like boxes of KD, or some other non-perishable food product to haul around so much, but never use any.
What's this now?
"My name is Wei Yan. Please let me join you."Yes
No
"We will serve you faithfully.While he is not as good as the guy joining right after this, he is really, really fast, and has good STR to boot, so he tags along for awhile.
"My name is Huang Zhong. Let me join you."Yes
No
"We will serve you faithfully."Our fourth tiger general, he may be a step down STR-wise from the other tiger generals, 235 STR is still respectable for someone, with soldier growths even, so he tags along as well.
The best thing in this town, however is the fact that they sell bows, allowing for the party to have ten hits in battle!
The armour provides a modest +5 to A.C, but it's cheap compared to weapons, so we take it.
There's this in the well too.
Looks appetizing, but we stick with bows on everyone, as they make this segment of this game fun.
And so ends last connection we had with Liu Bei in battle.
Thankfully, this is the last time we hear from her.
"Don't trust governor Zho Fan of Gui Yang Castle."
Here, it gets tricky because the lovely road vanishes (hint: we're almost in the south land; walk south)
But with the blessings of Apollo, Artemis, Ullr, Heracles and even Vishnu, the party curb stomps their way though.
Hard to believe Jingzhou is almost done, good times. This is one of the few castles which are not guarded, so we go right in.
(Every single person in the village, who are guarding every door in the city but the palace) "My lord has sent me to welcome you with open arms to his humble castle. Our simple accommodations will surely be inadequate but we are a modest folk."
Still nope, come up with a cool name, and maybe I'll put you on Guan Yu or something.
"Zhang Fei my friend, let me show you to your sleeping quarters."
"Hell naw'!" "Won't you reconsider?" "Hell naw'!" "You arrogant wretch. It's time to teach you some matters!"
I wasn't tired though.
So this battle is like so hard, right? You have to do this thing called 'hit the commanders with bows until they're less than 1,000 troops, then go all-out, and laugh as they fall.'
At least we're nice enough to spare him, as he abruptly falls off the throne and sits there forever.
While three cities are pacified, what awaits us in the fourth? Read on.