Drakengard 2 Part #32 - Episode XXVII: In Which We Battle General Dickbag

Part 32: Episode XXVII: In Which We Battle General Dickbag

Episode XXVII: In Which We Battle General Dickbag

Verse 5: The General - Music: Formidable Enemy

Time to finally take on General Gismor. No tutorial this time, nor will Nowe pull a Deus ex Anime to one-shot him in a cutscene. For now...

For this fight, we want to use Oror's Lionblade we picked up in the previous mission. Even un-leveled it's still one of the better weapons we've got attack power wise, since General Oror seems to have the innate ability to make things better, even from beyond the grave.

However, for this battle the weapon does double the damage of anything else as its hidden trait is a buff against General Gismor. The weapon story suggested Oror was a pretty chill guy, even when getting backstabbed by his pal. But his old sword suggest he might be just a little bit sore about that poisoning thing.

Gismor is a fairly straightforward boss battle. There are no godawful tedious gimmicks or swarms of low level henchmen mobs interrupting the fight periodically. It's just a pissed Fantasy Billy Mitchell and his big ass swords. Almost all of the general's attacks are completely unblockable, but he telegraphs everything pretty blatantly and evasion isn't too problematic. Gismor's most basic maneuver is to just lob his dual swords around the room like boomerangs. What? It's a valid sword fighting technique.

His second most common attack is to activate his rocket boots and zoom across the carpet, leaving a trail of fire and extreme motion blur in his wake. I don't think we've ever actually seen General Gismor run anywhere. So I am just going to assume that this is his preferred mode of transportation during his daily routine.

The only blockable attack the leader of the knights possesses is a single upward swing of his sword. But...

...It is immediately followed up with an electric punch. What, you didn't know Gismor could punch lightning? That carefully groomed beard and mane of hair isn't just for show, you know. It's a powerful conductor of pure static electricity the likes of which could fry a man to a crisp with a mere stroke of his fingertips.

"You still fight for others? You're pathetic. Your swordsmanship has not improved. You bore me!"

"Why are you so MEAN?!"
"Why does your voice sound like a shrill cat being skinned? I guess lizard spawn takes longer than normal men for their balls to drop."
"..."

"Don't listen to him. He's trying to throw you off guard."

"Listen to your friend there, dragon child. Listen carefully... You might not have a chance to do so much longer before he turns tail and runs off crying into the night again."

Gismor's health drops to two-thirds...

"I see where you got that name of yours... 'Nowe'. Heh. Fitting... There is no way you will ever triumph. No way you shall ever succeed. No way will you amount to anything. Other than perhaps a stain on the bottom of my boot. Tch...and I just got this armor polished too. I do hope weakling half-breed blood doesn't cause rusting..."

"Oror... Just the thought of him disgusts me, even to this day. I despise him and those who carry on his legacy!"

"Why couldn't it have been me? Hmm?! Why did Oror-who wasn't even a pact-partner-reign as leader? This mystery forever plagues my mind! Argh!"

"Well, don't take this the wrong way, boss... But you are...kind of a dick."
"I'll show you a dick!"
"...Gonna have to pass on that offer, general. It wouldn't be right to...honor...a deserter from the knights in such a way."

After General Gismor's little hissy fit, he adds a few more moves to his prank collection. Let's look at the sillier one first...

Occasionally, Gismor will let out a battle cry and begin twirling his swords around in front of him creating a vortex sucking Nowe directly toward his crotch area. Unfortunate animation effects positioning, or the true source of Gismor's power? You decide.

Lastly, the King of Kong can summon a six-pack of spirit swords for a homing strike on Nowe. I am uncertain how in the hell you're supposed to dodge this move. It has near 100% accuracy and will immediately correct its course even if Nowe jumps or rolls out of the way. Luckily, it doesn't hurt all that much as far as ghost sword impalement goes...

That's about it for General Gismor. Shame to see the magnificent bastard go...

"You loathsome monster! I cannot let you live. But first, that girl!"

"Let Manah go!"
"Whatever gave you the idea that I'd soil my hands with the blood of that Empire vermin? Much less let her filthy stench infest the halls of the shrine..."
"You mean...she isn't here...?"
"Good guess! You can parse together basic facts to reach a conclusion at an elementary school level. Maybe there is hope for you after all, dragon child."

So, Manah is scheduled to be executed elsewhere in the shrine. This...less than startling revelation apparently completely stuns Nowe and Urick. As such, General Gismor is allowed to just skip out the door chuckling at the prank he pulled without the slightest bit of objection by our heroes. Uhh...alright then...

Verse 6: The Bells - Music: Impatience

So apparently Gismor has set up some elaborate notification system through the Grand Shrine to announce the execution of prisoners. Kind of an odd thing to do, but there you have it. The party has ten minutes to backtrack all the way through the previous stage in reverse or else Manah will die. And since the female lead receiving capital punishment off camera is also not in the script, we need to stop that too. It is a shame that Manah has seemingly forgotten all that black magic she could do with her hands tied behind her back like the first time she was going to be executed. Would have come in handy... But meh...plot consistency. Who needs it!

There is really nothing at all to be said about this stage. Manah is being held, now get this...in the basement dungeon! I know, it's the last place I ever would have looked for a prisoner of war too! Nowe just needs to kill race down there in time. Killing more of the knights in their home base is optional. In the first floor basement, there's one final weapon for this chapter tucked in a storage closet. Let's take a quick look...

Drakengard 2 Weapon Stories posted:

MOURNING THORN

History:
"I'm so hungry..." The hobgoblin decided to help his boss as he always did. Usually he had to get food by helping out with various odd jobs, but today he would get a meal without having to do anything at all. An attack on a human village was planned for the following evening, and a hearty meal was provided in a preparation.

So they charged into battle, expecting a swift victory. But the humans repelled their attack with great determination, and the fight raged on. In the midst of the carnage, the hobgoblin fell into a shallow well. There he found a magnificent scythe. It was the failed creation of a demented magician.

The scythe was designed to Increase its wielder's desire to win. In reality, however, it brought out other uncontrollable desires in its wielder. Deemed useless, it had been thrown into the well. The hobgoblin climbed out of the well with the scythe in his hands. Hungry for food and blood, he began to kill humans left and right.

But the scythe's power soon began to overwhelm the hobgoblin. When all of the humans were dead, he began to bite and maim the other goblins. Even murdering and eating the entirety of his own tribe failed to satiate his appetite, and finally he slit his own throat with the scythe. It was later found by a beautiful elf.

Description: Mother elf's axe.
Traits: Excels at ground-sweep attacks, but hard to use.
Magic: "Voice of the Guilty" - Hurr...get it...? Cuz we're stopping an execution...

I like the final line. It's like they wrote the weapon's description and traits first. Then when it was time for the story to be written, the intern tasked with it just kind of glanced at what he had to work with at the end, went "oh shit!" and scribbled "yeah...and an elf mother found it! Drakengard 1 reference, bam! The end."

By the way, it's Arioch from Drakengard 1's weapon.

Alright, let's go save Manah. The final area of the dungeon has a gimmick where there are four potential cells that could hold Manah and we've only got one key. If we fuck up which door we choose to open, the party must re-fight a pair of heavy knights. Since that's how keys work... Also, I am quite curious as to how exactly they're executing Manah. You can stand outside the hallway leading to the cells and wait the timer out. Manah will still meet a messy end once the final bell tolls. Is there a device in the cell that just drops a heavy rock on her head, crushing her skull? Maybe a Spencer Mansion-esque room with a collapsing ceiling mechanism? Poison gas? If any of these things are the case, why bother with this bell nonsense? Gismor should have just pulled the "kill all prisoners" switch, had a nice laugh, and been done with it. Though, there wasn't much reason to take the terrorist leader hostage in the first place and not just slit her throat then and there. So I guess all this is just standard issue incompetence with the Knights of the Seal.

Anyway, it's the top right cell that holds the wayward ex-enemy of humanity. Hurray...

"Nowe... I'm so sorry."

"Be quiet. You don't need to apologize."

"What...?"

"But...how can you just forgive me knowing...the truth of what I have done..."
"Look, thinking about all that stuff just makes my head hurt. I didn't see you do it. So as far as I'm concerned, it never happened! Will that be okay?"
"..."
"It will."