Part 9: Days 12-13 - The Iron Beast

Days 12-13 – The Iron Beast

Where we last left off we experienced physical pain while enduring Plosi’s cliché and nauseating pervert routine.

Now we must proceed and…..oy, recruit Plosi.

Of brief interest is the fact that doing the stuff to recruit Bagoth earlier doesn’t carry over through a loop. Usually, key items like your map, Pattimo, and some other plot coupons stick with you no matter what. However, if you get the reactor key but don’t use it, it will not be in your inventory come the next loop. Hence, I am forced to quickly repeat the steps I took last time and secure the key from Ano once more.

After that, I return to grinding, as there’s one particularly important ability I must secure.



Rummy has her own moves to learn. From Hard Punch, you learn Hi Kick. From Hi Kick, you learn Diving Kick. From Diving Kick, Mouse learns Power Jump.

As an in battle technique, Power Jump hits hard, but not as hard as Ray Slash. The real prize in learning Power Jump is it’s out of battle utility. Power Jump can be used as a form of fast travel: by selecting it from the Skills menu (it doesn’t appear as an option till you learn it), you can jump directly to any map area that you have acquired the piece for. It costs 100 HP every time you use it, but Live Berries are cheap and heal 200. Stock up and use it liberally.



I told you way back in the first update: Mouse’s super power is super jumping.

One of the annoying features is that you can’t control where you end up on a given map square. You could end up somewhere far from your destination, or somewhere you can’t even reach your destination from. This can usually be solved by using Power Jump until you’re near where you want to be, but it’s tedious. Nonetheless, it’s better to have Power Jump than to have to manually traverse Pandule every time you want to get somewhere far away.

It’s a bit goofy to lock such a feature behind learning it from another character. While you’ll probably discover the idea eventually, there’s a chance you decided not to use Rummy for whatever personal reason. And if you don’t use her, you’ll never discover Power Jump. Imagine being locked out/ignorant of one of the most sanity preserving features of the game.

Apart from that, there’s nothing else to do but wait until I can go back and talk to….eurgh, Plosi.



If you try to bring a different girl than the one you brought last meeting, Young One will refuse to let you in. Just a reminder that I swapped to having Rummy do it at the end of the last update.



“Well, let’s get this started! COME ON, MY FRIENDS!”



Nasty.



“I know I can finish this by the morning of the wedding! Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without your help! Now it’s time for me to hear your request. I’ve got a promise to keep, you know.”



”…and that’s how Xelpherpolis manages to be more of a creep than you are. Only barely, though.”

“Hmmm. So, you’re saying you want me to help you help rescue the Princess. But when you start talking about “temporal closures” and the “spell of time”, I don’t know what to say. It’s not that I don’t like strange tales, but….But a promise is a promise. I’ll do as you ask. But, I’m the only one who’s supposed to get into the palace. What do you plan to do?”



“Oh, you mean the young one? “

“The young one?”

“Yeah. He had a real name, but….I never learn my assistant’s names. They all quit so quickly. It’s true. As my assistant on the portrait, he’d be allowed in. But, what do you plan to do? Shall we call him?”




Mouse beckons Young One to follow him.




We hear the sound Pattimo makes when striking something.



”He’s right here in front of you.”



“That’s quite a transformation. Yessss! You really are different, aren’t you? So! To the palace! Let’s go!”



Plosi gets us past a guard at the gate. And then…



We get a demon encounter. Just like Kyte, Plosi is now arbitrarily ready to see them.

Quartz is a new one. Unlike all the demons that lowered our speed to date, Quartz instead increases enemy speed. Other than that, it attacks normally.



Plosi has one attack right now: Black Ink. All it does is impair enemy vision. He is genuinely less useful than Rinna right now.

Plosi will eventually learn useful magic skills and such, but otherwise he’s a real stinker of a party member, just like how he’s a real stinker of a human being.



You know if Xelpherpolis really wants Mouse kept away from Loreille, you’d think he’d warn his people about his identifying features. Like his distinctive guitar you can see there….

“I thought it was a rather far fetched idea, but seeing the real thing was a shock! You know, I’ve been to the palace many times, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that thing. I wonder why?”

“Since the battle is being waged in the dimension of stopped time, normal folk don’t notice their existence. But for some reason, we’re able to exist in the same “time” as them. It’s the same for all those who believe us and are working together with us. I don’t really know what that reason is, but…”

“Hmmm….”

We then cut to Loreille’s room.




“People, I ask you all to leave here at once.”




“Now, please, hurry.”

The advisers leave.



“I can tell it’s you even though you’re dressed up in that disguise.”

There’s a flash of white, and Mouse is undisguised.




”I dunno, Xelpherpolis clearly knows something’s up, but he hasn’t done shit to kill me or my allies.”

“Get out of here now, while you can. Recklessness isn’t the same thing as courage. You should assess your skills and strength before you go ahead and do something.”

“That’s not a very becoming expression, Princess Loreille.”

“What?”




Maybe it’s just me, but I find that artwork hideous.

“So if possible, do you think you could make an expression similar to this?”



Oh god I hate it more up close.

“I drew this while listening to his impression of you. That’s why it looks like this. It seems, this is how he envisions you. Actually, he’s probably just hoping you’ll look at him like this, you know.”






“I’ll be straight with you. Please, be careful.”

”Fantastic! Now can you tell me more about what’s going on and why Xelpherpolis is an evil douchebag god?”

”No.”

”DAMMIT!”



“I’d like to get to work on the portrait.”

And then we cut to outside.



“This is all thanks to you. Call me whenever you need something.”

”Don’t count on it.”

“From now on I’ll cooperate with you! I mean, we’ve got the same taste in women as well, so….!”

”Our tastes overlap only because you like anything with a female hole.”




Just to top off Plosi’s shit sandwhich, he’s only with us to make beautiful lady friends.






And now to try our hardest to forget Plosi exists. Although he won’t make it easy for us.

That scene was a complete waste of time, wasn’t it? The best we could have gotten from meeting Loreille was information on what’s going on here, but we got bupkis. We endured Plosi’s bullshit for nothing, at least directly from his recruitment scene.

Anyway, I go to Claire’s place to put her back in my party, but she’s got something for us on arrival….



“It’ll be much more useful to you now.”

“That’s great, Claire!”



It’s almost as though they originally planned for Mouse to talk normally, and then made Pattimo and gave him all Mouse’s lines.

“I’ve also found something really interesting. You all will be shocked when you see this!”


Now Playing – Magic Mirror









“Wha…what’s going on here? What is this?!”



“That’s if the person who is called isn’t under the influence of time magic. And, they have to really want to come to where you are. These two conditions must be met. If these conditions are not met, it won’t be possible to call your party. So, from now on, when you want to replace members of your party, go to the mirror. And when you want to organize your items, Mouse, use the Time Vault as before.”

So yeah, we just earned our convenient method of putting people in our party. In case it wasn’t clear, before now we had to find party members and ask them to join us wherever they hang out. This meant having to run to Rummy’s room in the castle if we wanted her, or running down to the docks if we wanted Kyte. Now we can just do this from Claire’s basement.

This scene cannot be accessed without recruiting Plosi. I even tried a playthrough where I got literally everyone but Plosi, and it still didn’t play. You must have him (and Rummy, of course) to get this scene. And if you don’t get this scene, you will hit a point in the game where you cannot progress. Yeah.

With nothing else to do right now, I use the mirror to grab Claire and Rummy and head out to the wilderness of Pandule we unlocked access to earlier.



They barely resemble antelopes, and they sure don’t look like they’re made of steel. They are also boring and weak in fights.



Killer Cockroaches. They are red, and they are cockroaches, but not very killer.




Now Playing – Hunter’s Village

This here is the Hunter’s Village. It’ll be relevant to recruiting someone later on, so it’s worth finding them. On top of that, they have a shop that sells Super Live Berries, which are both fairly cheap and heal 500 a pop, over half of most character’s health now.



Just north of Hunter’s Village (inaccessible unless you go through the village) is a wee house with this lady called “Helenum”. She identifies herself as a daughter of the “old lady”, the 4th to be precise. We won’t find out who this old lady is until much later, but suffice to say this woman and her siblings are related to a quest.

Helenum, like all her siblings, can heal you fully for 500G. Not a bad option if you’re in a bind while exploring. She also has a map piece in her house we can nab.

We don’t have any more time for exploration, however, as the time has come to recruit Rinna.



I jump back to town and take a moment to note that Rinna is not in her dancing position. She is replaced by a generic dancer.



Rinna’s Father: “Actually, my daughter appears to be missing. She was chosen to dance at the wedding ceremony, but never showed! Where in the world could she have gone?!”



Mouse flashes back to the broom incident.

(It seems Rinna was eavesdropping and overheard what we said. We better hurry up and find her!)

But where could Rinna possibly be?

If you answered “Her secret place”, then you win the “No shit!” Award of 2021. The only reason not to guess she’d be there is if you weren’t paying a lick of attention. Of course, what you could really miss is the idea you could search for her now when you couldn’t before, beyond the fact that Rinna was otherwise supposed to show up to the dance.

Anyway, let’s pop on over to the painfully obvious place she would be…


Click here to see us swoop in and save Rinna.





Now Playing – Grantus’ Theme
(Quite possibly the most metal track in the game)



We see one of Xelpherpolis’ three robed flunkies, alongside the creepy dancers from the ceremonies. You can guess from the theme music this guy’s name is Grantus. The game doesn’t name him until later in the scene, but it’s not a plot changing secret.



Ox Masked Man: “You’re coming back with me!”




Ox Masked Man: “People like you appear every so often. Sometimes their intuition is so strong that they recognize the prison of time overshadowing the island. No need to worry. I’ll get rid of that fear of yours in no time. Either way, you’d be losing your memory in 2 days, but this is just a little early. You should be thankful.”




Suddenly, there’s a noise.



Ox Masked Man: “Why you! You plan on getting in the way here?!”






Now Playing – Rebellion

Boss fight time. Whereas Large Magic Flower and Jaylamu came with generic battle music, Grantus here gets a new theme, albeit not unique to him.

Of course due to all our grinding, Grantus turns out to be a total pushover.



Grantus’ bull mask chips away to reveal….



He was a bull monster this whole time. Whodathunkit?

“This is good. It’s more interesting this way.”



And then Grantus walks off with his creepy dancers in tow.







“I don’t know why, but ever since I overheard you talking, I’ve been so terribly scared! I keep telling myself that it’s impossible…! I had to get out of here!”

Suddenly, music plays.


Now Playing – Song of Courage








“I feel warm, relieved somehow.”




We then cut back to the inn.




Rinna’s Father: “It’s now not just about missing the Dance Ceremony…But, I’m so happy. I’m so happy you’re back safe.”

And that’s a wrap. Rinna is put to bed, and despite being otherwise awakened, will not formally join us until the start of the next loop.

If we don’t go rescue Rinna from Grantus’ attack, when the next loop comes, Rinna will return to her routine, having forgotten everything. As far as I know, there’s no way to re-initiate her recruitment after that, so you effectively lose her. She can join at a later part of the game if you didn’t nab her now, but that’s quite a way aways. It would be pretty lame to find out you’d missed out on grabbing her for some time if you managed to miss the Grantus scene for whatever reason.

Anyway, here we shall stop for now.

Join me next time, where we explore greater Pandule and finally recruit Bagoth.