Part 18: Seabed 2.0
Update 18: Seabed 2.0So, I, uh, don't remember where we're going.
Our LPer, everybody.
Music is still the A.o.A theme. Bleh
Oh, hey, that clears it up! Thanks, game.
(I love this fucking sign
)(Hahahaha, a moment of character for this game.)
Anyway, Ether Jungle doesn't actually have any new Digimon for us to fight; it's the same encounter set as in Phoenix Bay. Still, I like the color palette.
The Jungle Shrine? Not so much. It feels like they just slapped a dim lighting filter over it and called it a day.
Trooper: Does that make me a bad trooper?
Yes.
Amazing. That was the one intelligent trooper in all of Amaterasu Server - he didn't fight us.
Or incompetent?
Jungle Shrine has one new encounter:
In-game model:
Name: Numemon 3* (Brown Color)
Level: Champion
Location: Amaterasu South - Jungle Shrine
Drops: Training Book
3 STR, 4 DEF, 2 SPR, 2 WIS, 4 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 299, BIT: 770
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: None
Note: Can Run Away
This guy is actually pretty important, for one reason: that Training Book. It actually increases the rate of success of training (though not the gains from training, more's the pity) which on average ends up raising the gains. In the end, it's a rare-enough drop that it would take a while of grinding to get them, but WarGrowlmon's Picking Claw lets me speed that up a bit. Good news.
Hooray? This is pointless vendor trash, even if I didn't have heal batteries as part of my team.
Deeper we go, into the Catacombs, which has only one encounter.
Name: SkullSatamon
Level: Ultimate (I don't know? I think it's an Ultimate, but a few places have it listed as Mega)
Location: Amaterasu South - Catacombs
Drops: Hack Sticker
3 STR, 3 DEF, 4 SPR, 3 WIS, 3 SPD,
1 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 1 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 196, BIT: 390
Regular Attack: Dark Element
Technique: None
This guy is pretty nasty, since Dark Element is one of the harder-to-get Resistances without training it. He's worth the time, though, since Hack Sticker makes it easier to steal, which can be immediately used on those Numemon upstairs.
Still, we fought Zanbamon in this place, so there's a Black Digimon taking its place here.
BKSeraphimon: You've come to this divine place, now pay the price.
Kite: What do you mean by that?
BK Seraphimon: It means, you will fight with me! If you win, I will let you go... But if you lose, this is the end!
Kite: OK, I get it. Then let's do this!
BK Seraphimon: You will not be saying that for long! You had better prepare yourself.
Y'know, it's really irritating how they go to all this trouble to have snappy one-liners to start the battle, and then keep talking after they deliver the line.
You gotta make use of that sprite however much you can?
Yeah, sure, boss fight, whatever
(BK Seraphimon is unique to Digimon World 3, so no official art, unfortunately)
Name: BK Seraphimon (Boss)
Level: Mega
Location: Amaterasu South - Catacomb Back Entrance
Drops: Sniper Suit (After Defeat)
2 STR, 3 DEF, 4 SPR, 5 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 1 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 470, BIT: 960,
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Giga Heal (Heal Much HP), Seven Heavens (Physical)
This guy's not really all that threatening, so long as you use physical attacks against him. That 4 SPR might look scary, but Seven Heavens is a physical-based attack, and so he really doesn't do much damage. To further reduce his threat, I started off with WarGrowlmon and used Str Up and Def Up to boost my stats a bit.
So he specializes in one stat...and doesn't use it? BOOO
His regular attack is just a shockwave.
Seven Heavens is almost impressive, but doesn't do much damage, like I've said.
Good name, passable animation, shit damage. I give it a thumbs down.
Like all the bosses, though, BK Seraphimon falls pretty easily.
BK Seraphimon: I was testing your courage...
Kite: Yeah! I won't lose to anyone in that category!
BK Seraphimon: That's the spirit! You have passed. I'll give you this as a proof!
Kite: Yeah! I got the Sniper Suit!
BK Seraphimon: The pass will be revealed by courage. Do not give up to any enemy and endure!
I'm not sure how equipment is a pass, but sure, whatever. Sniper Suit is a Monmon-exclusive armor.
"The pass will be revealed by courage." That we just proved?
I guess this is what Bulbmon destroyed in Asuka Server. Any goons know what the mural says?
Now, I was gonna keep going to South Cape, hit up the gym and stuff like that...
...but plans changed because fuck yeah this team just got its first Mega
That being said, I won't actually be using WarGreymon right away. MetalGreymon gives me access to pretty powerful Fire techs, and since I won't be grinding WarGreymon up immediately, I don't want to lose them. Instead, I'm swapping Paildramon out for MetalMamemon.
While I was getting my Digivolutions shuffled around in town, I remembered that there was one more place for us to explore in South Sector. Remember that chest in the UG Lake? It's probably back.
The only enemy in this passageway is MarineDevimon, and the only one that has problems dealing with him is Veemon.
Why does every seabed everywhere have only one encounter. Why.
Not even the Zhu Que UG Lake is free from the A.o.A theme.
Of course, there is one new enemy in here:
In-game model:
Name: ShogunGekomon 2* (Blue Colored)
Level: Ultimate
Location: Amaterasu South - Zhu Que UG Lake
Drops: Chaos Wave
3 STR, 3 DEF, 5 SPR, 5 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 3 WATER, 1 ICE, 2 WIND, 1 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 184, BIT: 370
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Confuse Nebula (Magic, Chance of Confusion)
No different than its red counterpart in Asuka Server.
Hey, neat. Evil Fang is a claw weapon, so none of our Digimon can use it, but it'll be useful if I switch out for Kumamon or Guilmon.
...What.
WHAT?! I literally stumbled into this by fucking accident. Like, I thought it would be in West Sector.
Kite: Hey, what do we have here? ...Yeah! I got the Digi-Egg of Knowledge! Now I can summon Digmon! OK, let's go back to Asuka Server and go to North Sector!
YAAAAAAY PROGRESS! HOORAY FOR EXPLORATION.
...I'm sorry, I'm still in shock I accidentally found the way to progress. Normally, we have to do some weird bullshit sidequest, but NOPE just accidentally stumble into the goal.
Anyway, that's besides the point. Y'know these holes that I've been showing all game? The ones Giver's slowly been going insane over?
They're our Dig points.
Kite used Dig!
Welcome to the Circuit Boards. These things are hell. But at least the music is different.
Patamon: Use Plug Cape tunnel to get to North Sector!
Well, at least they give us our next destination.
There are occasionally blocks in our way, but they're just an extra two seconds of 'Press A and Digmon smashes them'. No minigame, no guaranteed fight, just respawning blocks that are there solely to annoy us.
...But why?
As for the reason why I hate the Circuit Boards so much already?
Here we are. See this image? See how it looks like the one immediately above it? It's not. The Circuit Boards are basically large, sprawling mazes with labyrinthine structures and no defining scenery. Digmon moves slowly, though not as bad as Submarimon, and I get lost like two screens in.
To make it worse, the enemies are unanimously a pain to fight:
In-game model:
Name: Drimogemon 2* (Gray Colored)
Level: Champion
Location: Circuit Boards - 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 11, 13, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30
There are HOW MANY areas?
Drops: None
4 STR, 3 DEF, 2 SPR, 2 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 1 WATER, 3 ICE, 2 WIND, 2 THUNDER, 3 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 220, BIT: 500
Regular Attack: Machine Element
Technique: None
Oh, you look cool.
In-game model:
Name: Kurisarimon 2* (Red Colored)
Level: Champion
Location: Boards 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 30
no fuck this. this is too many areas that look identical.
Drops: None
3 STR, 4 DEF, 3 SPR, 4 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 1 WIND, 3 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 250, BIT: 800
Regular Attack: None?
Technique: Confuse Nebula (Magic)
In-game model:
Name: Raremon 2* (Pink Color)
Level: Champion
Location: - Boards 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 27, 30
No, enough. plz
Drops: Bolt Power 2
3 STR, 5 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 3 SPD,
2 FIRE, 2 WATER, 2 ICE, 1 WIND, 1 THUNDER, 3 MACHINE, 3 DARK
EXP: 201, BIT: 400
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Magical Cannon (Magic-Machine)
Name: Rockmon (Real name Golemon)
Level: Champion
Location: Boards 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 09, 11, 13, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30
So much effort into making this game tedious.
Drops: None
3 STR, 4 DEF, 3 SPR, 3 WIS, 2 SPD,
2 FIRE, 1 WATER, 2 ICE, 2 WIND, 3 THUNDER, 2 MACHINE, 2 DARK
EXP: 220, BIT: 400
Regular Attack: No Element
Technique: Double Guard (Raises Defense)
So, basically every single one of these jerks has super high defenses, except Drimogemon. To make things worse, Kurisarimon literally only ever uses Confuse Nebula, which has a REALLY high chance of confusing your Digimon. It's just so obnoxious that the fights turn into time wasters every time we get into a battle here.
Agumon: This tunnel is connected to Amaterasu Server.
There'll sometimes be a Digimon in the Circuit Boards, giving us directions to one or more of the exits. This one's not too useful, since we came from the north.
Anyway, since the Circuit Board maps all look the same, I've just gone ahead and skipped over it. Otherwise, it'd be a series of unrelated images, just showing me in a different map every time. If you must, imagine Digmon wandering around the area for about 50 minutes, getting into fights every ten steps or so.
personified
It is, I guess, convenient that we have ways to and from the different Servers that aren't part of going through the Bug Maze. This particular Circuit Board is Circuit Board 04 - of 30, by the way
- which has entrances in Asuka Server Ether Jungle, Amaterasu Server Ether Jungle, and Asuka Server N Badland West.
Pretty much the only reason to take Circuit Boards, barring the occasional area that can't be reached on foot, is that each of them usually has one and only one treasure chest in them. They're pretty good stuff, too, like the Wisdom Chip that I got and am still hoarding.
The other reason is that they're not terrible shortcuts.
Patamon: Use Plug Cape tunnel to get to North Sector!
For example, this Circuit Board (Circuit Board 01) has exits in the Central Park, Wind Prairie, S Noise Desert, and Ether Jungle. Normally, to reach Central Park I'd have to go from Ether Jungle all the way to East Sector, then to Central Sector (assuming I didn't use one of the Seabed shortcuts, of course).
It's another twenty minutes of wandering around, getting lost, and finding every exit except the one I was looking for. There's not even a treasure chest to make things better.
Tedium World 3 -- I vote this is the new update title
Have I mentioned I hate the Circuit Boards?
There are a few Circuit Boards I don't hate, though. This one's one of them.
This is mainly because there's literally one entrance, one treasure chest, and no branches. It's amazing.
This hole is another tolerable Circuit Board.
Regardless of how much I dislike the stupid things, though, we need to go through this one. Remember, all the Digimon were telling us we needed to go down this area.
Ughhhhhhhhh
And they all look the same, right?
(None of those treasure chest images are this Board, by the way, Giver's just trolling)
This is what I meant by areas we couldn't reach by foot, by the way. We'll find a few more of these here and there, but by and large the Circuit Boards are just large branching areas that lead you to different sectors and servers.
Different...servers? More Sector Leaders in different servers?
Irritatingly enough, these things were already for sale. I think Renamon's wearing one, even. So this entire side path was pointless.
Anyway, every Digimon in Circuit Board 02 (where we are) is telling us 'Go North, young Digimon' and here we are.
We finally made it!
...And it's brown. Of course it's brown. I don't know why I was imagining a snowy area. Because that would be white and not brown.
I hate this game, Giver. I really, really do.
You and me both.