Part 9: Probably Every Shade
Update 9: Probably Every ShadeAlt. Title: My Good Ol' Buddy Benny
Last time, we were immediately transported to Asuka City in Central Sector, and then left there after getting charged to find Lucky Mouse and rescue Teddy.
Click for ambience!
Which, naturally, means that we have to walk all the way back to right outside Suzaku City to find the next plot trigger.
Hooray for padding! Also, shit, 99. MORE NUMBERS
Nami: Behind the shrine I saw the Crest of Reliability! I wonder why it was there?
(While I was walking back, I got into a fight. Here's Kyukimon and Taomon; Kyukimon is a scytheweasel and Taomon has floppy arms that are really badly polygoned. They're literally three separate chunks.)
Flappy inflatable arm-flailing tube...mon?
Ah, geez. More brown. EW
Fortunately, our next destination isn't too far off the beaten path. We just have to head down to the Bios Swamp.
So instead of brown, we get a sickish looking green. Joy. Hey, at least it's better.
It's a pretty small area, shaped like an anchor, almost; there's no other exits to the screen aside from the one we entered, and the left side of the anchor just has these two trees. You can't even fish here.
On the other end of the anchor, however, is our goal - the Reliability Shrine.
The name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
Kite: Then is the Digi-Egg of Sincerity in here? But how am I supposed to break down the wall?
I suggest
. It's not like he'll lose brain cells.Why not use your Digimon? SMASH IT
Kite: Hmm...maybe Sepikmon can help me...
Click for music!
Sepikmon: Ask my friend Baronmon about bombs! Baronmon is good at making bombs!
So, guess where we're going?!
This game in a nutshell
If you guessed all the way BACK to East Sector to Protocol Ruin, then congratulations, you've realized that this game has a massive problem with making me schlep everywhere.
"Hurf durf, MMOs are time wasters and our game is set in an MMO!
"
Hey, buddy, you wanna make us a bomb? No? We have to murder you? SOUNDS GOOD TO ME
Name: Baronmon
Level: Armor (Equivalent to a Champion; he's Patamon + Digi-Egg of Courage)
Location: Asuka East - Protocol Ruins
Drops: None
4 STR, 3 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 2 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 80, BIT: 160
Regular Attack: Dark Elemental
Technique: None
Baronmon is now a random encounter in Protocol Ruins. It's not a huge deal to fight him, but he's pretty strong.
Baronmon: Sorry, I don't have all the ingredients. If I had a TNT Ball I could make it in a jiffy.
Guess what I got the first time we were in Tyranno Valley?
Baronmon: Oh, you got a TNT Ball! Wait one sec. Snip, snip, cut, cut...ta DAA! It's now a perfect Baronmon TNT Chip!
Baronmon: Well, good luck! I'll be rooting for you!
Neat. Now, time to walk all the way back to Reliability Shrine...
Oh, did I forget to mention? There's no indication that we have to go behind the shrine and interact with it. It's stupid and dumb and almost certainly because the team was too lazy to make a 'Kite putting a bomb down' sprite.
Even though there's a sprite of Kite looking down already? Seems like even the programmers got apathetic with all the backtracking!
At least they animate a little smoke cloud.
Kite: There's a hole in the wall! Now we can go in!
Neat, we defaced and destroyed a religious shrine to satisfy our own selfish whims.
Just another day in the life of an RPG protagonist.
Click for music!
At least the music is soothing.
More importantly is what we came for.
Kite: ....Hey that's...!
Kite: Awesome! I got the Digi-Egg of Sincerity! Now I can call Submarimon and cross the ocean!
Yay...
We just got the HM for Surf! Yes!
Now that we've got Submarimon, we can make actual progress, which is towards the West.
Finally!
Click for ambience!
It's certainly less puke colored, though it's still not, y'know, a good color palette.
Up immediately north is another of these holes.
Which probably holds a mole.
And then immediately south of the entrance is...
Oh look, it's Digimon Giver.
Yeti, you're going the wrong way! Go talk to him!
So! If we keep going forward, there's this path to our right. And I'd rather fight a boss than deal with that shithead.
But you like talking to me.
WarGrowlmon: I was having a good dream eating bread!
Kite: ...Hey, WarGrowlmon. I got a favor to ask. Can I get Guilmon DDNA from your DDNA?
WarGrowlmon: No way! If you really want it, you gotta fight for it kid![sic]
So, now we fight WarGrowlmon!
Name: WarGrowlmon (Boss)
Level: Ultimate
Location: Ether Jungle
Drops: Guilmon DDNA (After Defeat)
4 STR, 2 DEF, 2 SPR, 3 WIS, 4 SPD,
2 FIRE, 1 WATER, 3 ICE, 3 WIND, 1 THUNDER, 3 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 250, BIT: 520
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Atomic Blaster (Magic-Fire)
WarGrowlmon is actually where my game ended the last time I played through Digimon World 3 - I fought him way too early, without the Counter Crest, and then got defeated. My last save was back in Seiryu City, immediately after beating the Leader. I don't really recall what happened next, but I think my controller hit the wall a few times.
Hahahahahaha, POINT AND LAUGH EVERYONE
His regular attack is a shockwave that hits Kyukimon for about 300-ish, 350-ish.
His special attack, Atomic Blaster, involves him shooting lasers out of his nipples. Seriously, what's up with this game and nipple-based attacks?
Maybe it's a female digimon. Oh god.
WarGrowlmon: That was a great battle. OK, take this with ya!
Kite: Yeah! I got the Guilmon DDNA! Thanks, WarGrowlmon!
Ugh, fine, I'll deal with Keith...
Keith: If you go there your Digimon will get really strong! If my Digimon train there, they'll be invincible!
Alright, fine, now that he's out of the way let's go over the new encounters in the area.
And an in-game model:
Name: Woodmon 2* (Green Color)
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka South - Ether Jungle, South Cape
Kicking Trees: Asuka South - Ether Jungle
Drops: None
3 STR, 3 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 3 SPD,
1 FIRE, 3 WATER, 2 ICE, 3 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 1 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 76, BIT: 190
Regular Attack: No Element (Drains Enemy HP)
Technique: None
You have to watch out for the Woodmon, since they drain like 90% of the damage they do to you (if it procs; it's like a 75% chance for the drain effect to kick in, I think.)
You'll also find Apemon, RedVegiemon, and regular Woodmon in Ether Jungle, though the green Woodmon are by far the most common enemy.
Moving, on, the area is really small; outside of the side path with WarGrowlmon, which we'll never need to go down again, there's only one fork.
The upper branch leads to a hole.
Do I need to start making this into more rhymetime, Yeti?
oh christ that's a sewage line.
It also leads to this place, which is way too powerful for us right now. We'll be back later when we can handle the fights.
You have the Counter Crest. I demand more game-breaking shenanigans.
I kinda wish that the entire area was this jungle. It'd get old fast, but at least it'd be pretty to run through.
The lower branch is progress and leads to the South Cape.
There's this guy!
Tamer Gordon: Heh heh! I flaked out from work, and logged in. Then let's Digimon Battle! That way I can forget all the bad things.
This dude might be married and isn't putting food on the table. MMO Addicition afflicts thousands of scrubs per year.
His team isn't great; it's just a Crabmon, Gizamon, and Gekomon. That being said, have a gif of a fox slapping a frog repeatedly.
Behold, Yeti's new avatar.
After beating up this dude who's all but definitely fired, we keep going and find the gym in the South Sector! (Yeah, that's right - East Sector didn't have a gym at all, and the South Sector gym is only accessible if you brave the Ether Jungle, which has Green Woodmon and is a right fucker to get through (Oh, and they appear here, too). So basically you won't be having any access to a gym outside Leomon's Gym for a while.) I happen to have some extra TP burning a hole in my pocket, so I do some training.
Training Results:
Renamon: Speed +66, Spirit +32, Power +33.
Kotemon: Speed +63, Fire Defense +34/Maximum MP +33, Wind Defense +30/Strength -5
Patamon: Speed +66, Power +64
You might notice extra gains/losses when Kotemon was training his tolerances. That's how it works:
Fire Defense -> Max MP up
Water Defense -> Wisdom down
Ice -> Speed down
Wind -> Power down
Thunder -> Defense down
Machine -> Max HP up
Dark -> Spirit down
Of them all, Fire and Machine are the only ones that boost your stats. That being said, you can always train the first five. However, we can't train Machine yet, and we can't train Dark in Leomon's Gym. Basically, Tolerances should only be trained last, when you have nothing better to spend your TP on.
As an aside, Shellmon do appear here when you fish, but they go down to one Thunder Gemini from Taomon.
Moving on, we find another of these platforms and nothing else.
Fucking lillypad platforms.
Finally, we can do something with them!
Under the sea!
Under the sea!
Click for music!
Welcome to the Seabed! The seabed sucks.
New encounters:
Name: Dolphmon
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka Seabeds 01, 03, 04, 07, 09
Fishing: Asuka West - N Badland East, Pelche Oasis, S Badland
Drops: None
2 STR, 3 DEF, 3 SPR, 5 WIS, 4 SPD,
3 FIRE, 3 WATER, 1 ICE, 2 WIND, 1 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 98, BIT: 200
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Divine Rain (Magic-Water)
I'll explain what's up with the Location data when it becomes relevant; don't worry about it for right now. Just know that right here, this is literally the only Digimon that fights us. There's no other encounters.
Oh that is boring AS SHIT. At least it's consistent with this franchise.
First off, the game switches controls with no rhyme, reason, or warning. We're suddenly using tank controls, always rise, and go forward (and sink at the same time) by pressing triangle.
The environment is bland, basically two different colors, and this Seabed is linear. There's one entrance and one exit.
Did we have to dive into the Seabed to cross? Of course we did. Don't think any differently.
See this? This right here exists SOLELY to waste your time. You have to go over them. That's one thing. However, the only way to go up is to stop moving forward. The only way to move forward is to hold Triangle, which ALSO makes you go down. The two grills are set far enough apart that as I pass over the first, I sink low enough to get blocked by the second. It's incredibly frustrating.
Note: Wasting the player's time as much as possible doesn't make your game longer in a good way. It just makes it BORING.
When you see this beam of light, you know you're done and thank fuck for that.
Click for music!
Welcome to our first taste of West Sector, South Badlands. I assure you, this place is much nicer than the entire rest of West Sector combined.
New encounters (There's a few):
This guy looks amazing.
Name: Etemon
Level: Ultimate
Location: Asuka West - South Badland, North Badland E
Drops: Super Charge
3 STR, 3 DEF, 3 SPR, 5 WIS, 3 SPD,
1 FIRE, 2 WATER, 3 ICE, 3 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 1 DARK
EXP: 100, BIT: 205
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Small Heal (Heal a small portion of HP)
Name: Ogremon
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka West - South Badland, North Badland E
Drops: Power Chip
5 STR, 4 DEF, 2 SPR, 2 WIS, 2 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 102, BIT: 200
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: None
The drops from these guys are nice, but right now we're entering the part of the game where enemies start hitting REALLY hard. We're talking ~400 damage every attack. If this were a regular run of the game, where I didn't have access to the Counter Crest? Holy shit, this would be a nightmare. I'd be forced to up Defense, and any time I'm upping Defense I'm not upping Speed or (relevant attack stat of your choice here).
Basically Counter Crest lets me actually play the game.
That, or you have to grind more. The problem I'm seeing is that you invest a lot of time grinding, only to advance through the game comfortably for a short amount of time. If you're gonna make the player grind, let the player feel superior for far longer than it took to grind. E.g., if the player spends 30 minutes grinding, let them wreck everything for the next 2 or so hours.
Skulls? Are we in Wily's castle?
It does look nicer than South Sector so far, though.
I won't make a hole joke since they aren't our goal-DAMMIT
Nick: ...it's you again! Please, don't get in my way!
Why is it suspicious
That's it for the ground floor.
OK, see you later Nick
...Are those trousers.
There's a pair of incredibly pointless stairs here; they lead to literally the same place.
no
The South Badlands are a bit spread out, but there's really not that much to do here.
Into the Badlands...airs on Sunday night on AMC
Yeti, fuck off. You're torturing me now.
Especially since apparently they can just have a platform leading to nowhere.
Yeah... I never got the point of those other than to just mess with the player.
That jumping point leads back down to the lower alley, so we're done here! I wonder what new area awaits us?
What are carriage wheels doing here.
Click for ambience.
...Fuck.
Oh no a desert maze
Know how I try to show off the majority of the area, give a fairly good look at the area as a whole?
Fuck doing that for Noise Desert. It's literally a desert! Right here, this screenshot has like 75% of the features. There's a few cacti sticking out of the ground, maybe a rock or two, but it's largely just flat featureless area where the only hint you can't go somewhere is that you bump into a wall when you try to go there. Like, all that stuff to our left? Can't walk on it.
The encounters are similarly lazy:
The in-game appearance:
(except shiny)
Name: Dokugumon 2* (Brown Colored)
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka West - Noise Desert, Pelche Oasis
Drops: Spider Web
3 STR, 2 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 1 WIND, 3 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 105, BIT: 210
Regular Attack: No Element (Chance of Poison)
Technique: None
The in-game appearance:
More shinies?
Name: Airdramon 2* (Gold Colored)
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka West - Noise Desert, S Noise Desert, Pelche Oasis
Drops: Magician Rod
1 STR, 4 DEF, 5 SPR, 3 WIS, 4 SPD
3 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 3 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 1 DARK
EXP: 104, BIT: 215
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Mega Tornado (Magic-Wind)
I mean, I've already talked about these guys. The Magician Rod is a nice drop to have, but it's not as good as what Renamon currently has equipped, so... I don't care enough.
Shame on you, get every item.
What an exciting area.
YETTTIIIIII!!!
I'm reasonably convinced that this one screen has almost every shade of brown known to man on it.
Also, there's a south exit to South Noise Desert, but we don't want to go that way yet.
Here's a look at Rosemon, by the way. She's got two whips that are made of vines.
Well, that's someone's fetish.
Literally no idea what's going on. All I see is SANNNDDDDD
There's also an exit to the north. We're headed this way next.
Click for ambience!
This is Pelche Oasis. It still has the Noise Desert encounter table, which means we're fighting more Gold Airdramon and Red Dokugumon.
This place is also the Inn and save point for the Noise Desert area, similar to how Tranquil Swamp was for the Bulk Bridge area in South Sector. We can also fish here, but all we fish up is Dolphmon.
Continuing on, we... Oh, no, not you, too.
RUN YETI RUN
Lisa: Hi Kite! ...why am I here? That's a secret. Women always have secrets!
She's insane. Also, why does the game have her respond to something we didn't say? Kite's not a silent protagonist, we know that much.
She's CRAZY. DUH!
...Actually, come to think of it, we never actually see Kite talk unless it's part of a cutscene.
This is, I'm assuming, an engine necessity; by having it be a cutscene, Kite's no longer a player-controlled entity.
This, then, allows Kite to take on the behaviors of other NPCs - like pathfinding, talking, extra animations, so on and so forth.
Oh, this is North Badlands W, by the way. And there's a very important encounter here.
The in-game model:
Name: Goburimon 2* (Red Colored)
Level: Rookie
Location: Asuka West - Bullet Valley, North Badland W
Drops: Naginata
5 STR, 3 DEF, 2 SPR, 2 WIS, 3 SPD,
1 FIRE, 2 WATER, 3 ICE, 3 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 1 DARK
EXP: 112, BIT: 220
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: None
It's not him (The Naginata is the first two-handed weapon if you didn't buy something from the Heavy Armory. It's not as good as what Renamon is using.)
oh he cool
Name: Mammothmon
Level: Ultimate
Location: Asuka West - North Badland W, Bullet Valley
Drops: HP Proxy
4 STR, 3 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 2 SPD,
1 FIRE, 2 WATER, 3 ICE, 3 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 1 DARK
EXP: 116, BIT: 220
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: None
It's not him either (the HP Proxy reduces damage taken by a small bit. I don't use it because it's an accessory and takes up a slot better served by Counter Crest.)
Those shadows on his art are oddly placed.
Name: Tuskmon
Level: Champion
Location: Asuka Central - Plug Cape
Asuka West - Bullet Valley, North Badland W
Drops:
Counter CrestWAT. FARM DAT SHIT.
5 STR, 3 DEF, 2 SPR, 3 WIS, 2 SPD,
3 FIRE, 2 WATER, 1 ICE, 2 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 112, BIT: 200
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: None
It's this guy! Yes, Counter Crests are now obtainable in numbers greater than one! The drop rate for the fuckers is stupid low, though. It also doesn't help that there are two other encounters in the area, so you're only gonna be getting a chance at a Counter Crest a third of the time. I don't know the exact numbers, but it's somewhere around, oh, let's say an eight percent chance to get a Counter Crest in every random battle. Now, obviously the numbers are skewed down, since two of the encounters don't even have a Counter Crest, but it's still pretty damn low.
Anyway, North Badlands West. It's got lines.
(the second chest just had a second Power Charge. I didn't realize that I missed the notification until just now
)LIAR.
Uh, V goes into thingie. Idk.
Can we go inside the jaws of justice?
Continuing north, we come to the Nazca Lines.
Is that a Duel Runner from YuGiOh 5D's?
All the way up the stairs, there's an entrance to a place called Bullet Valley, but we'll go there later.
That's a smiley face.
The suspension bridge just loops back to the group of two trees we saw earlier.
Oh yeah, SURREEE. Post Image350, and then Image354 just because it has a hole.
And the east path leads to the exit to the area.
This is North Badlands East. Its encounters go back to the South Badland pool.
600 Bit isn't much to our coffers right now. I think we have up of 65000 BIT at the moment, thanks to my grinding against Divermon earlier.
And yet, you have nothing to buy.
There's a second Submarimon spot. If we go down and follow it the entire way, we pop up in Plug Cape!
So, now's a good time to go over the Seabed maps. There's nine of them in Asuka Server, and each of them connects to different areas and has different encounter rates. The one we took from South Cape to South Badlands was Seabed 09, and the one from North Badland E to Plug Cape is Seabed 03. Both Seabeds only have Dolphmon as their only encounter. They're also physically identical, so it's difficult to tell which is which.
This Seabed shit just gets worse all the time.
We also have the West Sector's gym here. We can train all of our Tolerances here, but that's the only difference between it and the one about five minutes earlier. I don't even bother looking at it, since I don't have any extra TP to spare. I'm trying to save up for something special later on.
If we go up the ladder and up the steps, we have this area here. There's also nothing else here, so... yeah.
Now, I need two more Counter Crests, so I grinded in North Badlands W for a little bit...
Grinding Results:
Kotemon: Lv. 20 -> Lv. 23
-Kyukimon Lv. 1 -> Lv. 30
--Kyukimon learned Heat Cutter (Lv. 5)
--Kyukimon learned Frost Cutter (Lv. 10)
--Kyukimon can Load Heat Cutter (Lv. 15)
--Kyukimon learned Burn Slash (Lv. 20)
--Kyukimon can Load Frost Cutter (Lv. 30)
Renamon: Lv. 20 -> Lv. 24
-Taomon Lv. 1 -> Lv. 32
--Taomon learned Thunder Gemini (Lv. 5)
--Taomon learned Ice Shower (Lv. 10)
--Taomon can Load Thunder Gemini (Lv. 15)
--Taomon learned Electro Bolt (Lv. 25)
Patamon: Lv. 20 -> Lv. 24
-Rosemon Lv. 1 -> Lv. 66
--Rosemon learned Grand Wave (Lv. 10)
--Rosemon learned Erase Poison (Lv. 20)
--Rosemon learned Erase Paralysis (Lv. 25)
--Rosemon can Load Grand Wave (Lv. 30)
--Rosemon learned Water Field (Lv. 50)
--Rosemon can Load Erase Poison (Lv. 55)
--Rosemon can Load Erase Paralysis (Lv. 60)
Kotemon just started off strong and got stronger; Heat and Frost Cutter aren't great anymore, but Burn Slash is still fantastic.
Renamon learned her -ra spells, if this is to be judged based on Final Fantasy terms, and her first -ga spell. Basically, don't worry about getting the Load Techs with your Champion, since the Ultimate in the line tends to either learn the move really early, or get a better one almost immediately.
Patamon, since it levels up so slowly, got the chance to get Rosemon up pretty damn high. Grand Wave is a fairly powerful Water Tech, and Erase Poison/Erase Paralysis remove the status effect from all allies. Water Field also buffs our Water moves and weakens Fire moves, so it'll be useful if or when we ever fight Fire Digimon.
UGH
Back in Noise Desert, we only have the western exit to do.
Oh, what's this now?
Kite: Yeah, that's the plan.
Numemon: You better not.
Kite: ...what? Why not?!
Numemon: Just go back from here! OK?
Kite proceeds to do nothing and just watch as Numemon walks away.
How does he walk without legs?
Like an Egyptian?
Kite: He's gone...
Yes, that's because you let him walk away, you idiot.
Kite: ...but what's up with the Byakko City thing?
Well, I'm sure it's nothing.
Click for music!
Next time, we'll check out Byakko City.
...Hey, what's up with the music?
It's cool is what it is.