Drakengard 3 Part #16 - Episode XII: In Which the Party Comes to a Grave Conclusion

Part 16: Episode XII: In Which the Party Comes to a Grave Conclusion

Episode XII: In Which the Party Comes to a Grave Conclusion

Music: Nethernox

Diverted by false information regarding Four's whereabouts, Zero found herself on the hunt once more.

Guided by the faint Intoner presence they detected, the group narrowed their search to a snowcapped range in the mountains...

New Music: Strumble

Let's be real here, narrator. Four was, in fact, chilling out in her fortress up in the mountains up until very recently. She just wasn't devoting her limited brain energy dedicated to thinking up sexual innuendo at all times. In doing so she did the reasonable thing after hearing that Five was stabbed fifteen times and her head split open. She went "nopenopenope!" and got the hell out of Dodge. This seems a reasonable reaction at this point.

Well, anything that gives me an opportunity to keep you warm...

Cram it, would you? The only one you're heating up with that kind of talk is yourself. Besides, I bet all this cold is giving you serious shrinkage.

Tch!

The role of Dito will now be played by Jason Alexander.

Um, probably?

Probably isn't good enough. You're the only one who can sense Intoners, remember?

I sure can! I'm starting to get really used to this feeling, too!

Yeah, I bet it feels real good, too, huh?

Oh yeah! It makes me spasm with delight!

...Stop teaching him things, Dito.

...?

All right. We're off. You go in from up high, all right?

Laaame. Wish I could fly around like big baby there...

No you don't! The higher you go, the colder it gets!

Huh, fair enough. Guess we'll just have to blaze our own trail on the ground, huh, Z?

Look if you want to keep warm just have Mikhail breath some fire in the upcoming snowy area and my PS3 will catch on fire straight away to heat everyone up.

Verse 4: Snowbound
Music: Antipurity - Battleground

Welp, this abandoned barren track of snowy mountain top seems like as good a place as any to resume the hunt for Four. I'm glad we've narrowed it down to a certain mountain range in the LAND OF MOUNTAINS after three missions. You know Zero, you probably could have left one or two dudes left standing to interrogate where Four took off toward. You could have killed them afterwards still! You are bad at this planning thing, lady.

Heh. Nice thought, but it's not gonna happen.

...Did you just make an innuendo about me actually fucking snow? How does that even...? You're an idiot.
No. Phrasing. That's not what I mea-- Forget it. Too much of Five's talk has rubbed off on me.
Yeah, I bet it rubbed off on you. See? That works... Fuckin' snow. Tch...
No like in the sn... Moving on!

We shoulda had your dumb dragon melt it for us.

Yeah, right. He'd probably miss and burn us to cinders.

Haha! Yeah, that sounds like Mikhail, all right.

Given the harsh climate and Zero's less than appropriate garments for the occasion, it's a good thing Four left behind an ample amount of soldiers in her wake. Nothing warmer than a fresh coating of high pressure blood spray all over you to stave off the chill.

As if the battalion of abandoned meat puppets left to freeze on his mountaintop by their benefactor Intoner didn't have hypothermia, being warmed up dramatically by a dragon, and Zero as enough to worry about. This snow swept peak is home to another factor that drastically lowers the expected Proto-Empire's enlisted survival rate: Spirits.

Spirits on their own aren't much of a threat. They're just disembodied skull dudes that can maybe bump into Zero for a slight nuisance bit of spectral damage. Also I want to say their animations are recycled from an earlier Cavia game: Bulletwitch. God help you if you played that hot banger. Also fuck me for possessing that knowledge.

Getting back on track, spirits' real threat comes from the fact they can possess certain enemies. In this case the cannon fodder soldiers are just ripe for body snatching. With newly found spectral guidance a normal, fresh out of boot camp into the meat grinder cadet can go from mook number #173rd decapitated by Zero today into a credible threat.

Friends of yours?

I don't have friends.

Mikhail. Is he gonna be okay? Visibility can't be good up there.

He'll be fine. He's actually tougher than he looks. I'm sure we'll see him again soon. ...Sometime.

...Probably.

Your optimism is overwhelming.

Priority one in any battle involving spirits is to immediately make a beeline for 'em and take out as many as possible as quickly as possible before they can get down to business with the whole mind enslavement thing on folks. Popping off Intoner Mode is always a good idea if available as it makes wiping 'em out beforehand a cinch. No Camera Obscura or Ectoplasmic Containment Units required. Just a good old fashion stabbing will work for Drakengard.

If a spirit does gets its talons stuck into a fleshy host, it results in a ~~Devil Triggered~~ Possessed version of that enemy. Possessed enemies gain a stylish golden halo along with a shadowy black reskin. Along with the palette swap they gain a huge boost in attack strength to the tune of being able to home run swing Zero eight yards with a single sword swipe. Their defenses go through the roof, as well. And lastly, there is the whole total immunity to staggering or being swept off their feet perk. It's rough going to face more than a couple of these guys.

TLDR: Possession just basically makes a brick shit-house version of standard enemies. It's not too bad now, but later on in the game we'll see stuff like a trio of third tier possessed ogres eager to play volleyball of Zero's ragdolling body and other fun activities.

There are two ways to exorcise a spirit. The first is to just murder the host body. They're ghosts. They take over bodies. They don't raise the dead. The undead are a completely separate entity in this world! ...Which spirits can also possess... Urgh... Look, I'm not going to figure out the laws of ethereal possession in Drakengard's universe.

The second method involves just kicking shit out of the possessed host until the Power of Christ compels them get the fuck outta that dude's body. What? It worked for The Exorcist didn't it? Young Priest just beat the shit out of Linda Blair until Pazuzu jumped bodies. Old Priest didn't do dick with his spiritual mumbo-jumbo. In this case, we can just stab it afterwards. No need to get dramatic.

Apparently, one of the Proto-Imperial soldiers took a big runny shit on an Ancient Indian Burial Ground somewhere on the mountainside. As from here on out it's just a stream of fleeing armored men being pursued by angry ghosts and having the most unfortunate luck of running into the white death that is Zero in their path. The results are quite a messy clusterfuck in which it must suck to be a part of the Intoner army gig.

Yeah, no shit!

A dozen more panicking tin soldiers and pissed poltergeists later...

Come on, Zero! Call him already!

Shut your trap! I'm trying, okay!? I've BEEN calling him, but he's not answering!

Uh oh. That's not good.

Probably just flew out of range or something.

You don't think maybe Four captured him, do you?

No way.

Four's disciple is pretty ripped, you know. I'm thinkin' he could probably take a dragon.

No one "takes" a dragon. Even a stupid idiot dragon. He'll be fine.

Man, you're so cheery.

Gya, I'm sick of these fuckers! And WHERE'S MY DRAGON!?

After an utter slog of ghostbusting and headbusting alike, the residual negative spiritual energy sealing the area is cleansed. Or the gate out of the arena opens because this is a video game. Ehh... My version sounds better on paper.