Part 38: Episode XXXIII: In Which We Done Fucked Up...
Episode XXXIII: In Which We Done Fucked Up...Verse 5: The Shadowlord - Music: Fate
Alright, time for the final battle against General Gismor McShadowlimbs. First things first...
For this battle, we want to use Oror's Falconblade that we picked up in the previous mission. Like Oror's previous sword received a buff against human Gismor, this one does added damage to the general's shadow self. General Oror sure did have an ass load of swords, eh?
The Shadowgismor's primary attack method is to stand at the far end of one of sides of the room and fire off a trio of massive lines of energy straight across the room. Gismor telegraphs where he's going to hurl his attacks via distortions of energy along the floor. Even so, as the battle progresses he tosses each attack so quickly that even with the knowledge of exactly where it's going to be, it is still quite tricky to evade successfully.
When Nowe reaches Gismor's perch and proceeds to do a combo or two on him, the general will fly to another side of the room to resume his attack pattern elsewhere. It's pretty much just a game of chase the boss and playing dodge
After a few rounds of laser line spamming, Gismor will glow blue when moving to his new location. This means he's changing up his attack pattern. In this phase, he will land on one of the pillars outside the arena and Nowe's reach.
Here, he will unleash a massive wave of energy that shoots out both a shockwave across the entire battleground as well as sends off a volley of energy balls homing straight in on Nowe's position. The shockwave is easily evaded by just hopping over it.
The energy balls can be a bit trickier. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible to dodge them. They can be blocked, though. But, the attack moves in an odd, wispy fashion and if one strikes Nowe from an odd angle (like slightly above for instance) then his guard will not register and he'll take the hit. And if Nowe gets hit by one energy ball, all five are going to rain lightning down on his head in rapid succession. I imagine by the massive HP loss that this is not a pleasant experience...
The only way to counter this phase of General Gismor's attack is to equip a weapon with projectile magic and to fire off a shot of our own to knock Gismor off his perch. Doing this both negates the shockwave and energy ball attacks he performs, even if their animation has already been triggered. Just about all of Manah's weapons can do projectile attacks. But, Oror's Falconblade also can pull it off. So there's that.
"Oh yes, of course there will be. I am the source of ALL of humanity's corruption and misery. Everyone will join hands together and sing songs of endless bliss for the rest of this dying world's days. There is not a single theft, rape, or murder being committed right now without my guidance and blessing. No group will ever seek power in the vacuum created by the fall of the Knights of the Seal. Nor will the boot of those stronger ever again come down on the face of the weak to get a leg up on the competition. Nope. It shall all end with me..."
"Yeppers."
"I'm pretty certain that is how it will work."
"You two fools cannot see it as my face is a shadow, but my eye is twitching at your utter ignorance..."
"Hmph... Maybe the 'Iron Dragon' title he earned did not extend to certain other attributes of his...character. Hehehe."
"What?! "I'm calling your dear dead dad a limp dicked failure breeder who only settled on a whelp like you because that was literally the best he could ever hope to do in life."
"...Why are you so MEAN?!"
"Tsk tsk tsk. I only provided the assist on both those instances. It is of no fault of mine that they were too weak to overcome such easily avoided ends. Besides, I don't recall forcing you to gut your dear friend like that. Heh. I was just giving her a hug. Oh well, at least she finally got her wish of being penetrated by your sword. It is a shame for someone so young and talented to yearn for such a dull and lowly goal..."Gismor's health falls to 50%...
"What!?" "I've defeated you like...three or four times now, Gismor!" "Was I a being of darkness overflowing with power those other times?" "Well...no..." "Then shut your crap, Nowe!"
"One of those things are not like the other..." "You were blessed with powers by birth. You cannot understand or even imagine the suffering I endured as a survivor of the Empire!" "The Empire? Then why? Why would you force your suffering on all these people? You knew their pain, and yet you leave them to suffer!" "Tch... Simple." "Fuck you, got mine!"
"Gismor... You're a sad man." "Don't look at me like that! The world would be better off without idiotic idealists like you!"
"Might makes right! Only the strong survive! Knowledge is power! Knowing is half the battle! Gismor, yo!"
Once Gismor's health falls to critical levels, he starts playing electric dodge ball with Nowe by chucking curve balls of energy toward him. Unlike the earlier variety of this attack from the platforms, this one can be evaded by running along in a zigzag pattern. They can also be blocked. However the force of the impact will knock Nowe back significantly and we're kind of attempting to get close and stab Gismor to death.
Gismor finally goes down with little in-game fanfare...
"Gismor, you're defeated. This is the end." "Oh, look at you. So eager to land that killing blow so you can pump your fist and tear up and go 'I did it, Oror! I avenged you!' Am I wrong? Tch... Well, sorry. That's not happening, dragon boy."Gismor gets to his feet and trots over to the Time Dais.
"What!?"
Click to view cutscenes
It seems Gismor has pulled his massive broadsword out of his ass during the transition to FMV Land. Also, he hates Nowe thiiiiiiiis much.
As Gismor's final troll, he destroys his own district key so Nowe doesn't even get the satisfaction of slaying the dickbag in the end.
General Gismor. He died as he lived. Trolling Nowe like it was going out of style. Rest well, greatest of all of Drakengard 2's assholes. Have fun telling General Oror what a fuck-up his kid turned out to be undoing all the work he accomplished in life over the years up to and including destroying the seal he died defending and joining forces with the leader of the Empire. I'm sure he'll be so proud of his boy.
The final district key explodes in the same sort of time distortion Hersey's Kiss from Drakengard 1's Ending D. This is probably a bad thing to be engulfed within giving how well that ending went...
Unfortunately, since we are indeed within FMV Land the five or six floors Nowe had to climb to initially get here are immediately circumvented and the party escapes unscathed.
And the time distortion just kind of piddles out shortly after engulfing the tower and killing any knights unlucky enough to still be inside during the detonation...
And thus the Drakengard Doomsday Clock ticks one minute closer to midnight...
Hey, Nowe... Manah... This might sound crazy but...
...I think you two may have just seriously fucked up.
Shade Gismor Battle Highlights
Gismor Battle Aftermath (You should probably watch this.)
Shadow Gismor Concept Art - At least he got to keep the Billy Mitchell hair and beard all the way until the very end.