Part 33: The Power Plant (Part Two)
Rest in Peace, My Friend
Just because we're done with the most annoying part of the dungeon crawling aspect doesn't mean we're done with everything.
Door on the left lets us grab some decent healing.
Door on the right's another Life Terminal. No Karma Terminal near here, so gotta backtrack a little for one.
Oh, there's another of these things. Alright then.
Boss: Device Gate Core Epic Battle
So, this time around we DO have an actual boss fight against these things. There's only one of each of the turrets but they're a little stronger than before. They also have more HP on top of that; 2200 each instead of 1600.
The Gate Core is currently resistant to everything, so we'll ignore it for the time being. It also doesn't attack either; instead, it opts to give us a classic RPG staple. Each of its first turns are used for a countdown from 5 to 1.
Thankfully, Gale picked up Rakukaja almost immediately after the Laser Cannons before.
Tarunda is only really effective on the 20mm Machinegun but its helpful all the same.
I'd also actually stack Sukus in this fight, if only because the Laser Cannon might miss and waste their turns. Not overly common but it's nice to have it happen.
Like so. The 20mm Machinegun and Laser Cannons attacks are identical to before, so there's no new tricks here. I actually DID consider bringing Roland instead of Cielo for this one because he's the only person with a semi-important skill but decided against it.
The Hee-Ho ring only voids the Frost Ray on the wearer, true, but it does cost 2 turns all the same.
...This is also the one time that Revert Pulse actually is a possible issue. Because the Machinegun is right there and can very easily ruin whoever gets reverted.
On the Gate Core's sixth turn, it has finished its countdown and does something.
It opens up revealing a small rocket launcher. This uses its turn, of course. Even better: no matter what happens this turn, it still cannot attack. Even if they crit or hit a weakness or something, the Gate Core does not get to fire this round.
Once its open, its resistances switch to the same as the other two. That means we can pelt it with triple Makakajad Ziongas and slice through its 3300HP.
You will probably want some kind of anti-Fire spell. Roland has Drain Fire which is the ideal one to have frankly, but Void Fire is sufficient.
The core has all of one attack you see, and its actually very powerful. It'll deal about 150 damage to everyone with capped Rakukajas.
...But its fire elemental so we can negate it entirely.
It also defines "successful" very weirdly, and will close again on its next turn.
Since the 20mm Machinegun has a chance to inflict sleep sometimes, this is a good time to see the best new change to sleep. A bit of a double edged sword, but since you regain 10% HP and MP every time you get a turn now having characters get put to sleep isn't always an immediately bad thing. It's nice for the MP regen if nothing else.
There's not much reason to actually do so, but you can still drop the Laser Cannon and Machinegun if you want. It does make things a little bit easier to deal with, but at a cost.
With either one destroyed, the Gate Cores countdown speeds up a bit.
And by a bit, I mean a lot. It drops to only taking 2 turns now; this is technically a reset on its counter here since it was part way through and all.
It also has the added effect of making the fight go faster on account of not having to wait around as long.
But what if you destroy both the Laser Cannon AND 20mm Machinegun?
Since either one has an effect on the countdown, both make it even fastr.
Just... make sure the second one gets destroyed when its closed. Genocide Mode means it will never close again and instead spend every single turn firing off its Flare Cannon.
But if its closed when it enters this mode, then it still has to waste a turn opening.
If you get it to this state, you should be in a position where you outright cannot lose. It only has one attack and you can negate that effortlessly.
Decent Karma, a fair bit of good money and a Wild Bomb for our troubles. Naturally, there's no AP to be had though.
And with that, the gate in opens up and we can continue unimpeded.
Silence
She's not gonna like this.
I'd think your lives would depend more on not bothering...
End
The way forward is pretty linear at this point but first...
Battle for Survival
Hey, it's Vetala again. Hi Vetala! He's actually encounterable before the Gate Core just fairly rarely. He's more common on this side.
Also, not really any different to when we fought him as the first boss. It's always disappointing fighting a boss and having it pop up later as a regular mook, y'know?
We could also run into Laksmi. Same caveat as Vetala, above. She's actually just kind of easier than her DDS1 incarnation since she has a weakness to Force now.
Rest in Peace, My Friend
So, we just fought the boss of the dungeon... and there's more dungeon to go past that gate. Sort of makes sense, but doesn't make it any less awkward.
At least there's a small terminal right here.
...Right before yet another gate. At least the panel's right there. Activating it leads to our next cutscene too.
Defensive Line Silence
I must admit, I am quite impressed with how well the Lokapala have been holding off the Society's soldiers so far.
Indra
The Lokapala are smarter than we thought.
Wait, what?!
I'm with this guy. That sounds like a suicidally stupid idea.
If she's killed... Then our liberation won't...
Ma'am!
As long as she desires this, we can do nothing.
Silence
During that small interlude, Roland managed to get the door to open...
Epic Battle ~ Prelude
You'd expect it to be quicker, but more important is that there's something on the other side.
That is a lot of snakes. Must be those guys who came running from the security camera place.
Boss: Yaksa Raja Naga; 5+ Dragon Naga Epic Battle
So, we first have to deal with 3 Nagas. They're a bit tougher than normal though.
And by "a bit" I mean a lot tougher. Normal Nagas would be obliterated by this.
It's also a very good idea to come into this fight with Void Mute.
Unlike normal, these guys will spam good electric spells.
...Very good electric spells at that. They'll also consistently use Void Fire and most crucial...
Makajam or, later on, Makajamon. You really, really don't want that.
I'd use the first three to stack buffs since the Raja Naga comes in as a reinforcement and all.
The Rakukaja mantra also comes with this debuff. It's a very good debuff.
It costs 40MP so its very expensive, but its 2 Tarundas at once. It does absolutely nothing else. Its cost makes it not as good as just casting Tarunda twice mind you, since it costs more than casting it seperately three times, but its more convenient.
Anyway, the Raja Naga is only weak to Fire. He nullifies Electric and the usual boss stuff. The Nagas still repel Electric but have the usual boss immunities added on as well.
Oh, the king of the snakes also has one other immunity but we'll get to that later.
Much like his subjects, the Raja has an affinity for Electric spells. This manifests itself in Mazionga and Ziodyne of course.
He does have one other trick he came prepared to show off as well.
Conviction is a heavy tiered Physical attack. That damage is with 3 Rakukajas and 2 Tarundas, so its not to be taken lightly.
Oh and it is an instant kill to anyone who's been Muted. That's the big reason why you don't want it to happen.
Since he can only use it with 2 Nagas, he'll more often than not spawn in a new Naga every turn he's missing one.
Since the Raja himself has 2 press turns, the newly spawned Naga can act on the same turn its summoned.
If its the only Naga, it'll almost always Void Fire. The first normal Naga to act really, really loves doing that.
It's also during the part with the Raja where the lesser Nagas will cast Makajamon occasionally.
Its not common, but Raja Naga CAN Maziodyne as well. Doesn't always do it, and if he has two he'll prioritise Conviction for the most part.
Still, whenever he does it that makes it easier to go on the offensive. Since he only has 2400HP, he doesn't really last all that long when you do attack him.
His other immunity is Earth which is pretty much entirely to stop you treating him like a normal Naga, or casting Materazi when they have Void Fires up.
Other than that, he has no particular tricks and its just a relatively long fight. Once he dies the fight ends.
And he gives better everything in comparison to the Gate Core. More Karma, more money, the +4 Vitality gem and even a fairly large amount of Atma!
Silence
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!
Adil! What's happening!?
What coulda happened to dem?
Wait, Roland, what?
Roland...
End Rest in Peace, My Friend
Roland's totally gonna be fine, right? We're near the end of the plant so we should just finish up...
I see this guy managed to survive the battle.
He's asking the right question but at the wrong time.
There's still a short walk to get where we want to go, but at least there's no fights at this point.
Free Power Data inside that room, though.
Another slight fork in the road.
The door to the right lets us pick up some more cherry blossoms.
The path to the left looks rather promising...
Unfortunately there's no way to get inside.
That just leaves the other door to the west. Another branch, but this one's much more straightforward.
We're supposed to be going to the control room.We can't go north even if we want to.
So that just leaves this room to the west.
The Control Roomhey so just watch this instead if you can. no really.
It makes sense to have Gale be the one to do all the technical stuff here. He has the best chance of succeeding, even if it is only just slightly better than the other two.
It does look like he's succeeded though...
But only for a very short while. I guess it just didn't take.
Put simply: we don't. Great.
Roland!
That... is a lot of blood.
No... We can't.
And it's Roland's. Just keeps getting worse doesn't it...
Where are you, Roland! We're coming!
I think Roland's got the right idea. Sucks to even think it though.
Fortunately, Roland's spotted the main generator room.
I have one trick up my sleeve.
You need to get out of here. You can't do that!
It's all my fault that...
Karma
Meganada's large, imposing, hella slow but has at least three mouths. Two of which are identical to Prithivi's huh... odd that.
The one thing not made clear here is that at this point, you can hear Meganada stomping in the background. He's just about caught up to Roland...
Meganada
Understandably, Fred doesn't quite take Roland's self-cornering very well.
Tries to run off to help him, but Cielo's quick enough to not let that happen.
Let go of me!
Listen to me! You have to come to your senses!
So, Argilla just cries on Sera once.
Silence
From this, she gets the Water Crown atma.
This does explain the one thing the game is so eager to spoil though!
One short fade to black later...
Wait, what? No, that's a terrible idea. What are you doing. Stop being dumb.
End Rest in Peace, My Friend
Well, shit. In the space of 2 dungeons, we've lost 3 people.
Gaining one does not really make it better.
But, well, Sera inheriting Serph's power is not just there for fun. She starts with Serph's skills and mantra grid left exactly as is. The bullet he had equipped she just happens to have too. She even starts with his stats and then automatically levelled up to be on par with Gale and Cielo.
...Disappointingly, she DOES start with the mantra Serph was learning when he left but it is not mastered. That shouldn't be something that bugs me but it does all the same.