Part 10: Old Foes Return! Why Are They Seeking The Egg Of The Fire-Eater Bird!?

Howdy, folks, and welcome back! Last time, on Attack of the Saiyans, we met and fought Annin, who then told us how we could help save the Ox-King's life, by gathering part of the shell of the egg of the Fire-Eater bird and honey from an octagonal beehive. Today, we'll be egg hunting, so let's head out.



Where I'd cut off last time, Goku and Chi-Chi had just burst into Roshi's house to ask him about where to find what we need to plug the hole in the bottom of the magical furnace.





We fade to black as Goku tells Roshi that he fought a woman who's probably some sort of low-level deity.



At some point, Krillin, Tien and Yamcha join the conversation.



I should mention that nobody will ever check Roshi for just using the Bansho Fan as a potholder. This could have been done and over by now if not for his shenanigans.



Oh, yeah, do you like food puns and stuff? Because there's a lot of them in Dragon Ball. Many of the locations we'll encounter in this game have some sort of food in their name.



No it's not, Goku.



Despite being one of the better martial artists in the world right now, Chi-Chi doesn't do shit with that here.



She could probably kick the asses of most of the guys in this room, but we're not going to have her as a party member.



But, hey, whatever.





Sure, he'll be fine. He'll be soaking up all the EXP and AP on his own, so he'll grow stronger really quickly.





Actually, no, that's not happening. We're about to have a full party again, and have one person on the bench.



It's Tien.



It's not like there was much to it, Krillin. Ox-King's shit is on fire, he's going to die, Goku beat up Annin, and now we're acting as supernatural plumbers.



Ox-King is such a cool dude, most folks would risk their life for him.



Yamcha is coming along as this is still the point in the series where he's relevant in a fight and still good at punching bad guys.





Tien is just a bro and coming along because of that. Plus, he also has this training fetish, so the lure of being able to grow stronger probably helps, too.





Goku doesn't even get a chance to argue. His buddies are coming along.



Which is good. Because Goku would probably get his shit wrecked doing either of these dungeons on his own.



Alrighty, folks, let's mosey.



We're out of the early section of the game; the kid gloves weren't ever really on, per se, but now they're fully off. We're getting into the meat here, and the S-Combos are a pretty big part of combat.



In case you'd forgotten what an S-Combo is, it's when two, or more, characters have their Rage Gauges full, and they use the right combination of attacks to unleash a Sparking Combo, which combines their attacks into a stronger one, sort of like a Double Tech in Chrono Trigger.



We now have a spot where we can look at the S-Combos we have, seeing their requirements, and the notes we've collected on them.



They're hidden throughout the world and will reveal one part of an S-Combo.



They're not usually too complicated to figure out from their titles, but sometimes it's nice to have a little hint how to combine them. Some of them, you won't need, like for the requirements for Kamehame Fever. We've got three people with the Kamehameha; you can put it together from there, I'm sure.



We're back in control now, and Oolong is here. He's a shopkeeper, selling items, accessories, and a capsule (that costs 50,000z).



He's selling Rings in the form of all the parameters we have, which increase their respective stat by +3. Krillin picks up a Defense and Agility Ring, while Yamcha gets two Power Rings; Goku keeps what he had before. Krillin is being kitted out as an item thrower, while Yamcha and Goku are my two power guys.









These are our four fighters; Goku is clearly the strongest, but he's also level 11. Yamcha is at 10, while Krillin and Tien are at level 8. Even if Goku's level were similar to the others, he would still be stronger, as he's Goku, and he has great stat gains.





We're starting at the Kiwi Volcano, which is east of Baba's Palace, and south of West City. We can visit East and West City, which I should probably do at some point. Maybe next update.





This is our dungeon for the day.





Seeing as how it's a volcano, there's goddamned lava everywhere. Walking on it will deal damage, much like the poison floor from the Training Island.





There's also a slew of fire-based enemies around here, including Burning Mummies.



Wolf Fang Fist is pretty much Yamcha's go-to Skill, as it drops a bunch of damage at once. While his accuracy still isn't great, he's still hitting like a truck.



These guys aren't too tough, and I'd show off more of what they could do, but, well...I may have annihilated them before they had that chance.



Krillin is lagging behind, but that's okay. He may wind up as the strongest Earthling some day, but today is not that day.





For reference's sake, here's what Goku and Yamcha are doing with their regular physicals. They're definitely built to be fighters, while Krillin is built to be a support character. He's got some powerful attacks of his own, but he's really good at throwing items and keeping others going, which is why I gave him the Defense and Agility rings; he's gotta survive and be quick to keep the others alive to crush face.



EXP in this game is divided up, so if someone were alone, they would have gained 600 EXP all to themselves. Inactive characters gain EXP, too, but at a severely reduced rate, around 10% or so.



I took this time to spend some AP on our party; Krillin learned the Destructo Disk, while Goku had an upgrade to his Kamehameha and Yamcha upgraded his Wolf Fang Fist.





These guys are also wandering around here, and they're the kind of enemies who fall under the category of "more annoying than threatening."



This is part of the reason why. This is a very hefty boost to their defense. How hefty, you ask?



Well, this is probably a good showing of how much.



Goku and Yamcha can break 50, but that isn't much.



He has an attack where he makes like a Goron and rolls into a character repeatedly.



Guarding it hurts like hell, but unguarded will wreck your day.



Here's the final facet of what makes him so damned annoying. This not only lowers someone's Evasion, but also drops their Speed.



And their EXP isn't anything great, either.



There's a few bits of treasure scattered about here, too. This heals 50% of a character's HP and Ki.



On the next screen, we see that chest there, but we'll get to it in a minute.





So, let's talk about Krillin's new skill. You'll notice the targeting box is much longer than usual; it can hit enemies who are lined up, which is a very nice feature of it.





Destructo Disk is pretty much Krillin's signature attack, and one of the most recognizable in the series, I would think.



It deals solid damage, isn't too expensive to use, and you see the "Resist" that popped up there? Destructo Disk also has a small chance to instantly kill whatever enemy it hits. It's not a great chance, but it'll go up as we level it up; it'll never be a great chance, and I'd be surprised if we saw it trigger during this playthrough.



Goku is blasting the Magman with his new Kamehameha, which deals a bit more damage than before. How fun!



While Yamcha shows off his new Wolf Fang Fist to the Yorgan. There were still a few misses in here, so if he had hit with them all, this would have been much closer to Goku's Kamehameha.







This rock here needs to be dropped.



You can do it with any character's Ki blast, but I find it most fitting to use the Destructo Disk to cut it down. Entirely unnecessary, but it just feels right, y'know?





And just like that, we've created a platform to cross over with.





Time for our final new enemy of the update.



A goddamned dragon.



...Goddammit, Krillin...



He's the toughest normal enemy around, with lots of health and some damaging attacks. Thankfully, our characters will generally outspeed him, which helps.



I have a lot of trouble not showing shots where I'm just blasting something with a Kamehameha.





This is through an Advance Guard, so this guy hits like a motherfucker.



But that's not the only attack he's got going for him.



He can also light a character on fire, also for a ton of damage.



We get a nice amount of EXP for our troubles; this guy can also drop a Medium Bean, if he's so inclined, as well as some attack items to deal Fire damage.



To complete our path, we drop another rock.





Alright, I'm going to take a moment to discuss the Yorgan and Magman a little more than I did before.





The Magman can use a slide similar to that of Mega Man in one of the NES games, but with the added benefit of being on fire.



The Yorgan can slash at someone for good damage. Hell, just about everything in here is dealing good damage.



Not much more of a discussion on these two, but at least now you have an idea of what they're like.





We blow up this rock to reach some more treasure chests.



Including a revival item. Hopefully I don't fuck up and use this when I don't mean to again.



And then on the southern path, we find these. Like the Gas Mask does for poison floors, this will protect us when walking across lava, as well as raising our fire resistance. They immediately go on standby, as I'm still grinding carrots. I'll need 1,000 of those eventually.



I hit the save point and move on.



Oooh, look at all the shiny treasure!



...Motherfucker! We have to get our Ki-Blast up to Level 2 before we can break those rocks.



As a consolation prize, we get this; when equipped, if a character is damaged by a Ki attack, they regain a little bit of Ki.



And it'll be a looooooooong goddamned time before we have a Level 3 Ki-Blast and can break these kinds of obstacles.



So, let's go finish up this dungeon.



Interacting with this broken egg is what will kick off the finale to this dungeon.



Must be one hell of a big bird.



We all know it's not that easy, right? Not only is this an RPG and a video game, but it's also Dragon Ball. Nothing is ever that simple.



Getting worried!? Goku, what the hell is wrong with you!? He was two seconds away from being fricasseed before you left!



Goku's finely tuned senses pick up a disturbance behind them.



The sprite is small and hard to pick out some details on, but that is a dog dressed like a ninja.



And that's the woman who he works with.



You should know this, Goku. You've met these guys before.





Shu and Mai are far more prominent in Dragon Ball than they ever were in Dragon Ball Z.





It took Goku a minute, but he's figured out who these fellows are.



Did Krillin meet the Pilaf Gang? I'm pretty sure he did. He should recognize these two. Or maybe he does and just doesn't say anything.



: A man feared in every corner of the dark underworld!

: Robbery, murder, speeding, extortion, pickpocketing, dine 'n' dash...

: He'll do anything...anything...for money! I've heard he'd even slit his momma's throat for a nickel!



Oh, look at the little blue shnook.





Emperor Pilaf, you son of a bitch. There's a ton to say about this guy, so I don't even know where to start. Hell, just look this over for more detail than I can give you.





Unfortunately we do, Tien.



Pilaf is egotistical, focused, an asshole, and loves money and material things. He's also fairly short-tempered, but Shu and Mai are completely loyal to him.





Shu dreams of world-conquest, whereas Pilaf doesn't seem supremely interested in that. He probably wouldn't turn it down, though.



: This egg is mine! All mine!!



No, I'm not missing any shots or anything. The fight just starts that suddenly.



Pilaf has no compunctions with making threats or doing what he has to when trying to get his hands on something he wants.



I really should just let these guys start talking for themselves. I'm starting to feel a little redundant.



You'll notice behind Shu that there is only one enemy on the field.





This is a boss fight, but only against Shu.



Not that he knew it was coming, either.



So, this is the Shu Machine. Video link is here, as per usual.



I'm starting this fight off with everyone's basic combo skills, to boost those Rage Gauges.



He's got some pretty good defenses, being in a fighting robot.



One interesting thing with fighting robotic enemies is that they take less damage from physicals, but Ki attacks will wreck their shit.



The Shu Machine, despite the general dopeyness of the guy piloting it, is pretty damned tough. Granted, I miss the Guard here, but that's still not a number I like seeing.



He's got 3,500 HP to tear through, too.





And since people seemed to enjoy the last .gif I posted of Krillin being shot, here's another one.





Yes, he has an attack where he fires a missile right out of his crotch.



In addition to dropping some solid damage, it also has a chance to Stun a character, which is possibly worse.



In any boss fight, remember to keep your health high. Krillin doesn't have a ton to begin with, and it's easy to stop paying attention for a minute, miss a Guard, and watch as our bald little Orin buddy bites the dust.



So, who wants to see a new S-Combo?





This combo is done with these three fighters; each of them must use their Kamehameha attack to activate it.



It starts with Krillin booting Shu's ass way back.



And then he begins charging up his Kamehameha.



Yamcha is already in position, gathering energy for his Kamehameha.



While Goku is doing the same.







And then all three fighters launch the powerful waves at the same time.



Which smash into the helpless foe.



This hits multiple times, dealing heavy damage.



615...Not bad. Not bad at all. In the video, you can hear me scrambling through the menu, thinking I had an Attack Water to use; if I had been able to use one, I think this would have broken 800 damage.





For the most part, this is a good strategy for the fight. Blast him with your Ki attacks. And no, Krillin's instant-death attack will never trigger on a boss, I'm sad to say.



Yamcha is still not great with his Kamehameha, but that's okay. I'm allocating his points so he's really good at Wolf Fang Fisting stuff.



Here's something we haven't encountered before. See how each character has the Advance Guard symbol over their head? Even though I've tried my damndest, I've never been able to get more than one person into Advance Guard for this, so I'm pretty sure you just have to pick who's going to get fucked up less when you see it happen.



I went with Krillin, as I like the guy, and enough bad shit will happen to him during his life.



That was spread among all three characters, but that's still kind of a scary number.



Anyways, this ends the fight. Kamehame Fever is a pretty good S-Combo, and the participants are party members who are pretty good to have around, too.



We gain a nice bit of EXP for this fight, too.



Enough for Krillin to gain two levels, while Goku and Yamcha get one. I don't remember if Tien leveled up or not.



Bosses can't be turned into carrots, so we make money from those fights, no matter what. The Scrap Iron he drops is purely an item to sell to vendors, and it's worth a pretty penny.



After the fight, Mai is extremely casual about chatting with the guys she just saw beat up a robot fighter piloted by a ninja dog.



Hell, Shu doesn't seem all that fazed by it, either.





'course, these guys either don't recognize Goku, as he was still a little 'un when they last saw him, or they kinda just forgot who he was. With these three, it could go either way.





You can practically hear whatever composure was present crack.



And now it's shattered like a window with a baseball thrown through it.





Emperor Moron Pilaf comes to a sudden realization.



He was probably picking his nose while they were talking and not paying attention.



He proceeds to clear out, terrified of getting his ass beat (and rightly so!)





And with that, Shu and Mai run after Pilaf.



Surely, we'll never encounter them ever again. How could you even think such a thing?



Alright, that's what we came for. Coolio.



And that ends this update. All in all, not a bad little dungeon to go through, and the boss fight isn't too bad, either. There's some treasures I can grab with the Cold Boots, but I'll probably do that off-screen, as I don't think there's anything incredibly note-worthy, but if there is, I'll make special mention of it next update.

Speaking of which, we're going to Mount Frappe next update. Stay tuned!