Part 37: Episode XXXII: In Which There is a Warm Family Reunion
Episode XXXII: In Which There is a Warm Family ReunionVerse 3: The Hierarch - Music: Impatience
Welp, turns out going in through the front door was a waste of time in the first place, as Gismor is one of the few villains ever to have the bright idea of making a gate which doesn't have a key, switch, or panel that can open it from the outside. As such, Nowe and Manah will have to find an alternate route inside.
You are a retard who lacked the basic motor skills to stop charging at someone with a sword...? Just throwing that out there...
Sure Manah, that is deplorable... If you just going to ignore the hypocrisy of this statement when you left hundreds of rebels behind to die as meat shields so you alone could make an escape earlier on in the game.
Anyhow, when a Murder Meter is run down at the opening of the stage, a bunch of those wily green cloaked rebels appear from...somewhere...and join the battle. Sure, why not? There are no signs of a civilization for miles and miles. And by all accounts this was a hidden stronghold. But hey, rebellion! Fight the man!
Another Murder Meter depletion later...
"Yes, Legna. What about you?"
"Don't worry about me. Are you sure you're alright, boy? You look paler than usual." "A feat I didn't believe possible. Get any more white and some may start mistaking you for a ghost."
"I can't help it. Everyday, it's betrayal, hate, and murder... It's too much for me." "Silence. That is the price of knowledge."
"But..." "Stop being such a damn pussy when things stop going an iota in your favor! It is embarrassing! Man up, child!"
"...The key is on the top floor. Let's go there." "Agreed. Looks like we can land over there. I shall pay you back for the harm you've done to my wing!"
So Legna now needs to fly around the canyon's edge taking out the canyons that shot him down at the beginning of the chapter. Despite being able to headshot the dragon from 10 miles away the first time they were used, it seems at close range they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if they were standing inside of it. With that in mind, all five cannons are quickly silenced.
But, with the artillery's destruction comes Heavy Trooper reinforcements. There is absolutely nothing at all Heavies can do from the ground other than shake their massive fists in frustration and call our mother rude names. But, we simply cannot leave those poor rebelling civilians to face this new threat alone. Useless NPCs in video games are a common thread no matter what the genre. But I think this game is one of the few non-escort related times where NPC friendly units showing up are almost universally to the detriment of the player...
Oh well...once all eight Heavies lie face down in a growing pool of blood, Legna is free to fly the party up to the top of the clock tower for the final district key assault.
The party enters Heaven's Clocktower...
<eye twitch>
"She's alive! Manah is alive! Oh, is this a dream? How long I've waited for this day!" "My lord, why are you here? And how do you know Manah? Are you two friends?" "Friends? No. Manah is my sister. We're twins." "Ah, I see. So the stories are true. The price of your pact was time, stolen from you."
"...Well, yes. Did you think I was taking an extraordinarily long time to hit puberty? I am half a decade your elder..."
"What day?"
"Oh well... The last time I saw Manah was back during the end of the war when she turned into a giant and fought Caim and the Red Dragon." "A...giant...?"
"Seere, I think he's heard en-" "Yes, you know. She must have been...gosh...500 feet tall! She was bigger than this tower. She growled and shot lightning out of her hands and it was pretty crazy." "..."
"Seere, shut up!"
"I've scoured the world for her! She's my only kin, my only family. I yearned to see her again."
"To be fair, I had to talk Hierarch Verdelet out of sending scouting parties to track you down and have you hung for crimes against humanity more than a few times... You should be thankful I suppressed you involvement with the Empire from the general public's knowledge. I doubt General Gismor would have let you walk away with your head if he had known the truth about you that day... But anyway..." "When I heard that you were the prisoner, my heart stopped. I had to see with my own two eyes." "That's why I'm here."Manah turns to leave up the stairs. Nowe follows along because he's Nowe...
"Wait, Manah! Don't go! I'm not the enemy!" "I just supply funding to your current enemy and give my blessing to their actions protecting the Seals. But I don't fight with them! Honest!" "You're no ally, either. We're going to destroy the last key. Let's go, Nowe."
<shrug> "Okay. Nice seeing you again, hierarch!"Verse 4: The Clock Tower - Music: Exploration
Despite clearly having been almost at the summit of the clock tower when disembarking in the previous mission, we've still got several floors to climb in the mission proper.
In the first area there are three paths. The bottom most staircase leads to a storage room with some extra health and MP power ups. The topmost one leads further into the tower. But the middle one...
...Leads to a friendly Knight of the Seal who supplies Nowe with a brand new weapon in exchange for not murdering him with the rest of the knights. Let's have a gander...
Drakengard 2 Weapon Stories posted:
OROR'S FALCONBLADE
History:
Once, one of Sir Gismor's men was caught attempting to steal General Oror's sword. When he was brought before his master, Sir Gismor harshly reprimanded the knight, and threatened to execute him. The knight pleaded, "I only wished to be more like General Oror." When Oror heard this, he interrupted Sir Gismor, and began to speak...
"This sword was crafted after the elfin myth of two brothers who become the gods of destruction.
The older one was called Falcon, and possessed the gift of knowledge. The younger one was called Lion, and possesses the gift of might. They fought in a war between humans and elves.
"Using their gifts, Falcon and Lion brought mankind to its knees. But with the end of the war, there was no one left to test their skills against, so they continued their quest for knowledge and power. Eventually, Falcon gained the knowledge of the universe and Lion cracked open the earth and sky with his fists.
"The brothers had become the gods of destruction, and the elves had no choice but to seal them in "Hero's Time", using the lives and souls of millions. Your crime is the same as the brothers'. But in the name of my sword, Gismor, I beg you: spare this man." And so the knight was spared. But I never forgot the darkness I saw in Gismor's eyes that day.
Description: Wards off the curse of shadows.
Traits: Unknown. Buff against Shade Gismor.
Magic: "Blinding Tails" - Spears of light pierce the enemies' bodies in raunchy Sonic/Tails anal probing fanfics.
So there's out in another part of Drakengard's world the planet has a massive time frozen blackhead? Gross... Drakengard Earth should really seek out a cosmic dermatologist...
Getting back on track, in several rooms of the clock tower there are areas with a "time distortion". At this spot in the clock tower there was once a 50-50 chance of Nowe having drowned while playing as a child. This caused the dimensions to split and alter in significant paths which lea-wait no...I'm fucking up bad plots... Time distortion rooms are fun filled chambers where Nowe and Manah can only move at 50% speed. Enemies are unaffected by the distortion of time's flow because....gameplay! Needless to say, these rooms sucks ass...
Further on up the tower, Seere's passive-aggressive ass sends some of his Organization XIII black mages to stop the party from reaching the key. This is no way to mend bridges with your sister, Seere...
Seere's mages are somewhat different from the standard issue variety. Manah is still the choice slayer of the magical fiends. Their magic attacks are the standard issue explosive fireballs spells that can be blocked to replenish Manah's MP. However, attacking them is somewhat difficult.
If the mages are standing idle, they will teleport dash away from any physical attack. The only way to prevent this is to strike during the brief window they are charging up a spell. Or else coaxing the AI into a corner of the room, at which point it will stand there helpless and allow Manah to club them to death. These are also less than fun to battle. Doubly so the couple times where they must be faced in time distortion chambers. Since enemies that can teleport dash around and restricted movement make a wonderful pair, no?
Note that I left no lines out of that cutscene with Seere, nor has he appeared at any point between then, Chapter 1, and when this line is said. What I'm getting at is Seere has not once mentioned concern about this key Nowe seems to think he's obsessed with... I kind of get the feeling with all this time themed shenanigans and the fact that old concept illustrations make him look evil as hell, that Seere was originally meant to be the boss of this district. But, at some point they reconfigured the plot and Seere was reduced to a few token cameos where he's just as bland and forgettable as his sister.
Manah seems to still be rather bitter about that whole "my mom used to beat me and ditched me in the woods because Seere was the favorite" thing from 18 years ago. Freud would have a field day with a girl that was abused and neglected by her mother like that and then became the avatar of a time devouring dark god...
Music: Twilight Hill
Eventually, we come to the final stretch of the Heaven's Clocktower. A massive spiral stairwell filled to the brim with Heavy Troopers and Elite Guards make their last stand against Nowe and Manah.
Needless to say, they are about as successful this time as they were the last eight dozen attempts to halt the party's campaign.
Reaching the top floor of the tower...
"Manah, don't do it! It's not too late. As long as we have the final key..." "...The Knights of the Seal have bought you with the spoils of their tyranny. How shameful."
"No, Manah! You're jumping to conclusions! This doesn't involve the Knights of the Seal! You're just being-"
drakengard2.jpg
Nowe and Manah ignore Seere since honestly, fuck that kid... They continue to fight their way to the top of the clock tower where...
Yeah...I'm definitely thinking this would have been more appropriate if Seere was in charge of it. Hell, he's already got a pact beast and everything...
"Careful. We don't know where the guardian of Heavenly Time might be."
"Gismor! You're the guardian?"
"No shit, Sherlock." "...Who?"
"Read a book, savage. Or did neither of your bastard parents pull you out of illiteracy?" "..."
So General Gismor has a pact with a err...shadow. His pact-price was apparently turning him into the Drakengard equivalent of the Phantom Limb in blackface... That is...a thing...
"Oh, is that right. A boy raised by the wild and the Empire's crowned whore are the experts on the purity of humanity now? Somehow I think that metric you two are using may be a touch skewed..."
"Only by your twisted logic! Manah and I believe in equality for all!" "Really...? So, all of the broken and ruined corpses of my men you two cut your way through weren't weaker than you and died because of it? Strange, you seem to be subscribing to my philosophy quiet diligently with your actions..." "But...uhh...." "NUH-UH!"
"This is pointless. Talking to you is a waste of time." I think Gismor summed up all interactions ever involving Nowe in the spawn of two sentences. Shame that given history, he's got a 99.99992% chance of dying in the next update...
Verse 3 Cutscenes
Verse 4 Cutscenes
Hierarch Seere Artwork - Good old Seere. Utterly useless in every way until the end.