Part 85: Episode LXIV: This is a Story About Zero Tolerance Justice

Episode LXIV: This is a Story About Zero Tolerance Justice



Music: Strumble

Time for the final mission of Four's Prologue. Well, that is after we meet the state mandated two campfire scene quota of all the DLC is fulfilled. Decadus and Gabby once more join us for the proceedings in the ever popular Land of Sands ruins campsite.



Don't say such things! We achieved an honorable victory this day.
Yup. Keeeep telling yourself that. All you did was kill a bunch of helpless soldiers.
I'm just trying to help One. To serve her in all things.
Suuure. Okay, pin the blame on her if it makes you feel better.
I'm not pinning blame! It's the truth! I'd never kill just to kill things! All this fighting is... It's ugly. And sad.
Oh, that's a riot. If you REALLY feel that way, why do you keep chopping fools in half, huh?
I'm a simple girl. All I can do is devote myself to the challenge in front of me. You have no right to criticize someone who was only fighting as best she could.
You are living in one serious world of delusion, sister.

I dunno. I think the "simple girl rising to a challenge thing" kind of goes out the window when you are capable of kicking a man so hard all of his blood gets knocked out of his body. But I might be bias. Regardless, that's Gabriella's take on the situation. Speaking with Decadus will get the ball rolling on the next mission.



Indeed. Though it wasn't easy, we managed to succeed.
I'm sure Lady One will be delighted.
You... think so?
Of course.
I hope you're right. She's usually pretty quiet--it's kind of hard to know what she's thinking.
Now, if it please you, my lady, I have a strategy for our next battle...
...It's not like I'm fishing for compliments or anything. It's just... You know. If One would talk to me more often, maybe I'd have a better idea of what she really wants.
W-Well spoken, my lady. Now, as to the upcoming battle--
I mean, I AM the most cooperative of the sisters, you know? One's smart--she must have seen that by now. But even if One actually is grateful... it doesn't mean much if the object of that gratitude is unaware of it. That's just my opinion, of course.
...Anyway, what were you saying?
Nnngh... N-Nothing, my lady...
....
Y-You ignore whatever I say... You ignore my very existence... You leave me... twisting in the wind! Uuunnnggh...!

Right, enough of that. Let's get to business before Four launches into a complete soliloquy about her inferiority complex.



What next, Lady Four?
You know how the remaining elves have formed a band of air pirates, right?
I thought we'd already dispatched those brigands.
We dispatched them--but we didn't annihilate them. There are a few stragglers that we need to chase down.
Er, do we really need to chase them, my lady? When they have literally turned their backs and fled? They cannot be much of a threat.
But who is to say when they might once again bare their fangs? We must completely eliminate any potential threats to One.
S-Such cruelty...
Sorry? What was that?
N-Nothing, my lady. Your strategy is both bold and wise, and I shall serve you in all things.



Verse 4: Justice
Music: Exvulsion - Battleground



It turns out that airship technology is far more widespread than just Four's escape vessel. Indeed the elvish community has an entire airship armada stalking the skies of the Land of Sands. Which just so happens to look quite like the stormy skies over the Land of Mountains. Funny how that works out.



For this final mission of Four's campaign, justice must be enacted against these wicked elvish sky pirates. This is actually the only time in the entirety of Drakengard 3 that we will be encountering elves. Zero and the rest of the Intoner sisters never cross paths with the fantasy minority race at all.

Elves in Drakengard 3 are a bit different from the previous games. Not that we have a large sample pool to judge from to begin with. What with a few unnamed dying elves, a psychotic child devouring cannibal elf woman, and a flamboyantly gay elf cowboy boss being the only three previous examples of elves in the series. The elves in Drakengard 3 are different because they all sound like they huffed a balloon full of helium and have ridiculous high pitched voices. It's not just an odd quirk of the English dub, they sound even more like absurd squeaky mice people in Japanese. As always, there's a video at the end of the update if you want to hear their silly pitched chatter for yourselves.



Alongside the elven airship are a swarm of wyverns that will tag into the battle at set intervals or if Four and Gabriella take too long to down one of the fleeing crafts. Gabriella lacks any of the innate wyvern racism Mikhail possesses. So neither she nor Four have any comment on the job stealing K-Mart brand dragons.



These are pirates, you know. Real bad characters. There's no need to hold back. If we crush them utterly, the world will be better for it.
Now let's go save the world!
Seriously? Now you've got a savior complex on top of everything else? Shooting a bunch of fleeing infantrymen in the back isn't going to help One. It isn't going to help anyone!
No! You're wrong! And if One believes that, then... then she's wrong too!

(+5 Renegade) This all sounds perfectly reasonable, Commander Four.



Ahhh! Shoot the dragon down! It's going to light up the balloon!
Dragon! It's a dragooooon!
It's going for the balloon! Evade! EVADE!



The first half of this mission requires Four and Gabriella shoot down sixteen elf pirate airships. Gabriella will start making rail shooter looping passes over sets of airships. For instance there will be a set of two flying side-by-side, then three, then four, and so on. The loops will continue until all airships in a set are blown out of the sky and Gabriella moves onto the next set.



Destroying the elven airship is actually extremely easy. The pirate vessels have terrible defenses. Each airship is equipped with six cannons, three on each side, that can all immediately be locked onto with Gabriella's homing shots and disabled instantly. The cannons cannot be destroyed, only temporarily taken out of commission as Gabriella makes looping passes over sets of airships. If she has to take a secondary fly over to finish off a ship, the cannons will be active again. But, as I said, it's just a matter of locking onto them once and opening fire to put a button on that threat.



The actual target of importance on the airships are the balloons keeping the dirigibles afloat. These cannot be lock-on targeted. Gabriella must manually fire on all six balloons (three on each side) and destroy them all to take an airship out of commission. Alternatively, just popping Intoner Mode anywhere in the vicinity of one of the aircrafts will make the thing just immediately erupt into a ball of flames. But, that is erring on the side of overkill against such already easy targets.

Speaking of exploding targets, the occupants of the annihilated airships aren't too keen on our actions during the course of this aerial sorte...



Please stop! I beg you! AAAAAAARRRRHHHH! Fire! Fiiiiiiiiirrrreeee!





Aaaaaaaagh!



What?
Don't "what" me! Don't you hear all that screaming? How can you hear that without going insane!?
They're just battle cries. It's nothing to fuss over.
They sound scared shitless to me...
Oh? And what if they are?



Is this because we're elves?! What did we ever do to yoooooooouuuuu!?!?





Gaaah! Help meeeeeeeeeeee!



What?
They're screaming in terror! Okay, look. Even if these ARE elves or whatever, this is just... I mean...
Aaaah! A dragon is coming!
Don't let it affect you, Gabriella. War is as much a conflict against yourself as it is a battle against the enemy. You just need to ask yourself what it means to be on the right side.
Shut up, you freak. What do you know about "right," anyway!?



GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!



Stoooooooop! Pleaaaaassseee sttooooooooop!!
It's too hooooot!! We're breaking uuuuupp!!



Taking prisoners of war? What? Don't be silly! We were out pillaging deserts for rare gems to pawn off for war funding earlier today. Do you think One's administration has budget for prison upkeep? Besides, we're in the sky. Where would we even keep them? Have the seen the cost of maintaining a flying clam shell fortress? That's a pipe dream decades away.



Defenses penetrated! All hands! Anti-air fire!
Shoot 'em out of the sky!



Please! I know we're pirates! But no living thing deserves such horror!
Help meeeeeeeeee!



I'm on fire! I'm gonna burn to deeeeeeaath!!



Fire all cannons! Don't let it near the mothership!



A mothership, you say? No doubt filled with all kinds of thieves, rapist, murders, and lowlifes of all walks in. All in need of the hand of justice's judgment! What else would you keep so well defended?



I thought I was brave... But I don't wanna die!
Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!
Gaaaaaah! I'm on fiiiiiiiirrrreee!



No! It's heading for the mothership!



After all sixteen support craft are removed from the skies, Four and her dragon companion are free to deal with the final threat over the skies of Midgard: The Pirate Mothership.



All hands enter defensive formations!
Ram it if you have to!
This isn't even a war... It's goddamn MANSLAUGHTER!
Hee hee... Ha ha ha ha ha!
What's so funny!?
Manslaughter... We're fighting elves, remember? So it can't be MANslaughter! Hee hee!
Unbelievable...
Oh, and that's not all! This is a pirate ship, not some pleasure craft! Pirates are evil! And it's FINE to kill evil people! As long as they're not civilians, they're fair game! This is the hammer of justice at work.
N-No! The mothership. My... my family!
We're always in the right. Now, keep attacking! Move it!
Ugh. <sigh>

In a Japanese popularity poll Four came in second place. Taro Yoko saw this, scowled a foul sock puppet glare upon this news and whispered: "That's weird you all like the one that actively takes joy in... ETHNIC CLEANSING."

And thus balance was restored to the Drakengard realm.



To complete Four's elvish genocide, we need to take out this mothership filled with the families of the air pirates. All in the name of justice. Those elf children would have just grown up to be pirates one day themselves. Or worse yet. They'd still be elves!



The mothership is just an oversized version of the previous airships and acts exactly the same. The only difference is it has six cannons on each side and they repair themselves much faster since Gabriella is constantly circling the ship and swinging back around its bow.



There are three supporting airships that have come to defend the lead vessel. They're just as minor a nuisance as the solitary ships from earlier in the mission. And the lot of them can be wiped away all at once by just hitting off Intoner Mode and letting its natural area of effect damage burst the support crafts into burning splinters and shrieking elves instantly.





As with the previous airships, the real target is the balloons keeping the craft afloat. This time it is one huge balloon segmented into six sections instead of six smaller balloons. Each section takes a good concentrated pass over of fireballs to take out. But it shouldn't be more than six or seven laps around the mothership to bring Four's final solution to the elvish problem.



And so the elf pirate mothership bursts into flames and falls from the sky along with a symphony of horrified shrieking elves shouting in agony and terror as they burn alive in its ruins.



As the trophy says: Justice Prevails!

Music: Nethernox



The screams of burning victims rang out from the downed vessels.



The cries for help echoed far and wide.



But... None of it bothered the Intoner in the least. After all, they weren't civilians. After all, they weren't human.



After all, they were the "bad guys." The Intoner was filled with sublime exhilaration.



And that brings the final mission of Four's Prologue chapter to a close. In the end, we learned Four was not only a delusional head case, she was also extremely racist. I suppose all those jabs at Gabriella not understanding her position being a dragon takes on a bit of a new light given recent events, huh?



As with all the Prologue completions, Zero gains a new DLC weapon for her inventory. So let's take a look at that before we depart.


Middle children are always trouble, aren't they? Well then, have a good weekend. Unless you're an elf. If so, kindly report to the nearest dumpster fire and leap in you sub-human filth.








Video: Four's Prologue Verse 4 Highlight Reel

Skip to In-Mission Highlights



Elven Pirate Mothership Concept Art