Part 36: Episode XXXIII: In Which Furiae Expresses Strong Family Bonds

Episode XXXIII: In Which Furiae Expresses Strong Family Bonds


Well, that last chapter was utterly useless. It seems that the "spacebridge" Leonard and Caim stumbled upon lead to...the Sky Fortress...?

...

Really...? That entire sidequest was just to go to the same damned place we were heading in the first place?! This fucking game!


It is such sweet sorrow...unless you're getting rid of an asshole. Then it's not too bad. Much like Chapters 9 and 10, Chapter 11 is another split in half chapter with a branching point at the very beginning.

Verse 1: Maze


I'm not sure if Leonard has a different line if he's chosen as the sub-character. Nor do I particularly care. Since we're in the neighborhood and there's no longer any rush, let's check out how Seere works out as a sub-character.


NO!


So, Seere is...pretty ridiculous. Not in the powerful sense or anything. It is just the fact that a six year old ankle biter is a playable character. Being a small, slow moving child with an even smaller dagger, Seere is useless as fuck. He runs about as fast as Caim walks, he has the range akin to a midget wielding a fork, his attacks hit for about the same as said midget, his striking speed is sloth like, and every hit he takes (and he will take hits just trying to get into range) knocks off over a tenth of his energy meter.



The only thing he has going for him is his magic attack, which is pretty much just Golem flipping out and pounding the ground a few times. This hits for decent damage, but it's pretty much limited to any group right in front of Seere. But, when you've got Arioch's "double nuke the shit out of everyone in a two block radius" attack...there's really no reason to ever use Seere.


Despite the title of this verse, the actual mission is fairly straight forward and linear. The only maze-like quality it has is the fact it takes place across five floors (with Caim beginning on the fifth floor and working his way down.) And the fact a specific path must be followed to nab both weapons in this stage.


For the first weapon, there is a specific route that must be followed in order for it to spawn. Deviating from the route leads to a "fuck you and replay the stage" scenario. The picture above illustrates the correct route to make it to where the weapon spawns. Once that path has been followed to the empty room, several enemies will spawn. Killing the entire lot of them nets Caim's new cursed weapon of the day.


How do you know what the sky fortress looks like? You been there before or something?
"No. Its appearance is similar to that of the sea fortress. I merely assume the same contractors were hired for the construction of the Empire's mobile fortresses."
I get the weirdest feeling of déjà vu with this place.
"There is no time for such idle thought. The goddess is in danger."
Yeah, yeah.

An annoying path to a weapon nobody who lacked a guide would figure out unless by pure dumb luck later...


The fourth floor also contains a new weapon. The weapon itself spawns in that empty circular room to the west. However, the trigger to unlock it is a couple floors below. It's worth noting the trigger for that weapon and the path to the alternate path in this chapter are both in that room. But, we'll be avoiding it this playthrough.


"If I had hair to pull out, I would be doing so right about now."
Maybe that's why his pact price was losing all his hair. He caused so many people to pull out theirs that it finally caught up with him to bite him in the ass.
"That's actually a fairly sound theory."


"Shut up!"

A couple floors below...



Eventually, between sessions of Verdelet not shutting the fuck up with his constant doomsaying, Caim will come upon a small room with a handful of elite soldiers that must be slain. Killing all four of them both unlocks both exits of the stage, but also that weapon I mentioned earlier.

Insert a boring screencap of me backtracking across half the level to get the wayward weapon... I want those five minutes of my life back...


This fucking guy!
"Ugh!"
Listen, dragon. When you're flying over here be on the lookout for that dumbass petrified dragon of his. If you see it...I don't know... Just drop a fucking giant boulder on the thing or something.
"I'll keep my eyes peeled."


I'm not sure what Red is going on about there. But, no time for musing on odd lines. It's time to muse on some terrible weapon stories!



Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Thor's elemental gimmick shooting lightning? That's what I thought...


I swear, evil swords are always such ingrates. Just once I'd like to see some weapon possessed by an evil spirit let whoever conjured it up do his whole massacre/revenge/being a jerk thing. Then when that was all said and done, the evil entity just tipped its hat and thanked him for the souls of the innocent without making the one wielding it turn the blade on himself or possess him or any of that crap.



It comes equipped with a healing spell? Well, here's one weapon that Caim is tossing straight into the closet.


Yeah...so if you make a magical item to protect yourself but it also siphons the life force out of you...there is a chance you're doing it wrong.

Verse 2: Dreams and Truth


Time for one last short Event Stage before we get to a whole mess of cutscenes. Well, a mess for as far as Drakengard goes. It's a short cutscene by say... Dirge of Cerberus standards. Then again a feature length movie is mid-range by Dirge of Cerberus standards.


There is yet another weapon hanging out on a broken bridge to the south east of the area, just before the exit. The end of this verse is actually after the next cutscene. But since the next three verses are one continuous scene, that'd fuck up pacing just a bit. So, let's go ahead and check it out now, shall we?



Nice. Caim stole the grim reaper's scythe. Between this and killing Death in Drakengard 2, Caim really has it out for avatars of death.


So the scythe of the reaper had just pretty much been going all Weekend at Bernie's with Death. No wonder the guy keeps showing up in every Castlevania with a slightly different outfit.

A short jog later to the Sky Fortress Inner Sanctum...


"A world where Furiae lives! Open your eyes. Hear what our priestess says. We can survive!"
No worries, Inuart. I don't think of you a traitor. I think of you as a spineless effeminate pussy that'd look decent as a pincushion for one of my swords.


You know...it is pretty bad to be a villain that nobody, including the princess archetype you kidnap, takes seriously.


Furiae collapses to the floor and Inuart expresses his concern. But, Furiae shoves him away.


He then proceeds to sulk and quietly return to his quarters to cry and write poetry. He then cries some more when he remembers he's a bard that can no longer sing.


"I knew keeping that ineffectual fool around would be worth it just for the laughs. Hahaha."


"The Watchers do love their gossip, though. Lalalala. So let's dig up something fun! Tee-hee."



Manah uses the Force to slam Furiae into the pillar and pin her down.


"No, don't..."
"Oooooh. This is some juicy stuff! Do you wanna hear it, hero? Do you wanna tell, him? No...? Aww... That's no fun. No fun at all. Here, let me start for you..."


"Stop it!"
"I can see into your heart."
"Hehehe. Hahaha! Oooh... Lookie here! What's this...?! Ahh... Here's the good stuff. Hehehe. Why, this is downright scandalous. You've got a big place in there, hero. You know that? But...hmm...not exactly the right place, now is it...? Hehe."


"Hohoho. You'd be surprised the amount of emotions found in here. And so many of them not at all fitting for a goddess. Nope nope nope. Hehe."


"No!"
"I'm dirty! I'm dirty! I'm no goddess. I renounce it."
"Please, please, my brother..."
"...I want you inside me."
"..."
"...?"
"...?!"
"!?!?!?"
"I'm sorry!"


"Hehe."
"..."
"..."

Verse 3: Falling Petals


"Mmm~mmm! The schadenfreude... Simply delicious."



*clears throat*








Caim is not into this shit. At all.


Welp. It looks like nobody in this game is making it to the end without some deep irredeemable aspect to their character. Before you say there's still Seere, no. The kid is fucked up too. We've just yet to see it.


Distraught about the revelation that she wants to jump Caim's bones but her brothers is grossed out and rejects it, Furiae does the most rational thing to save face that she can think off. What's that, you ask?




Suicide, of course!


This takes Caim a bit by surprise. I suppose it is one thing to just show up too late to prevent your sister's death and triggering the apocalypse. It's quite another to be the direct cause of her death and triggering the apocalypse. It's worth noting that without the incest overtones to be there for Caim to have a reason to reject Furiae, this whole scene really makes shit for sense. Of course, that's exactly what they did for the localization. Go ahead and watch the bonus movie and just omit any knowledge about tight family bonds grossness.



There actually is one more way to get Furiae killed. It's the only one that doesn't end with her leaning awkwardly on that pillar with a dagger sticking out of her breast. We'll be checking it out in the final playthrough.


Gah! There's a...whatcha call...emotion I'm supposed to be feeling now... Ergh... What was it...? Anger...? No, that's not it! Rage? No...that doesn't sound right either. Hunger? No that's wrong.


Crap...this is harder to remember than I thought.



Welp...that all could have gone better...



Are you fucking SHITTING me kid?!


"Hehehe... Aaaaaaaaaaawkwaaaaaaarrrrrd! Tee-hee."


Manah is a lot more fun when she's acting like a smug little bitch.

Verse 4: Anger Checked


I'm not going to lie to you. Caim acts dramatically out of character in this verse.


I AM controlling it. It's all getting focused into a controlled blow to this tiny shitstain's fucking FACE!



"The seeds will soon be sown. The world is in grave danger. Quickly, now!"


"..."


Dammit! Don't go anywhere, kid. I'll be back... I'm going to kill you last. I need some time to think of something creative.


And with that Caim storms off back to Chapter 7...again.


Manah quietly sprinkles a handful of cherry blossom petals after Caim leaves because she's just a jerk like that.

BONUS CONTENT:

Movies -
Furiae keeps it in the family

Music -
Eleventh Chapter Aerial Mission
Eleventh Chapter Ground Mission
Note: This track is unused ingame seeing as Chapter 11 lacks an aerial mission. Whether it was cut or they just couldn't get the composers off their bender to tell them they didn't require the track remains unknown. I'm not sure why it's list as the ground mission's music on the OST (the aerial mission one is used for all the stages.) It might just be an error on whoever ripped it's part. In any case, the second track is unused outside the OST.