The Let's Play Archive

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard

by Dr. Fetus

Part 73: Sweet Revenge

Sweet Revenge



: HAHAHAHA! My true powers return to me!

It's time to unleash the broken, again!

PC-88 Version



: Uhh...

: Yo! Fedot! You there? You were kind of staring off into the distance for a bit.

: O-oh. Sorry. Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't expect to see that thing here.

: Okay, daydreaming aside, can we get to killing this thing already?

: R-right.

Yes that's right, I'm gonna kill Dragon. A postgame boss that you're supposed to be at levels 60-70 in order to have a chance against it. Now if you leave the 3rd floor after Dragon spawns, it'll leave and you won't be able to fight it until later. In a normal playthrough, I wouldn't have considered doing fighting Dragon at this point, but EO has done things to me. I'm too far gone. Don't weep for me. Let's take a look at the team we'll be using.



Aegis has one of the most important jobs, and that is keeping the team alive.



Now unlike the Salamox fight, Nick has a much bigger job than using Dominate. He's gonna be one of our damage dealers for this fight. This why I bought the postgame whip for him. I also maxed out his strength. I need Nick to be doing a ton of damage in this fight.



Gilbert has the most important job, and that's using his Force Skill. Not only will that provide our party with a damage increase, it has a side effect we can take advantage of.



Fedot is probably the least important member in this fight, and we could probably beat Dragon without him. But hey, a guaranteed turn where Dragon can't do anything is nice. I also put the Haste Pin on him because Dragon has 90 AGI, and I want to make sure that Fedot is fast enough to pull off Riot Gun.



Aliara's just gonna be nuking down Dragon with Revenge. Now if I wanted to be optimal, I would have her HP at exactly 500, but I don't really care that much.


Video: Dragon

PC-88 Version



Those of you that played EO1 may notice that Scatter About is playing here instead of the regular boss music. Yeah, in the rest of the games Scatter About plays in the Dragon fights. The first game was an exception to that. For those that are new to the series, Scatter About is the optional/postgame boss theme. I'm not really a big fan of the track myself. Although I loved EO3's version of it. I think the drums really add a lot to the song. I wasn't a big fan of EO4's version though. The first two games shared the exact same version of the song. Anyways, let's take a look at our enemy.


Dragon
HP: 12000
AT: 92
DF: 100
Skills: Voltage, Curse, Fury
Item Drops:
-Common: Volt Scale - Unlocks Dragonbane and Volt Orb. Limited stock.
--Uniquely sharp scale of the magnificent Dragon.
-Rare: N/A
-Conditional: Amp Barbel - Kill with Volt. (100% drop chance) Unlocks Mobius Alb. Limited stock.
--Taken from the mane of the thunderous Dragon.
Description: This yellow dragon, master of lightning, has lived since time immemorial.
Weakness: Fire
Resistance: Volt (0%)

Yikes, look at those stats. Dragon's moveset has also changed a bit since EO1. Unlike the first game, he'll cast his elemental breath on certain turns instead of at random. Usually on the first turn, and then every 5 turns after that, although that won't always be the case. He can also cast it after he uses a certain move, but I'll get to that later.



Since Dragon always casts Voltage on the first turn, I had Aegis max out Antivolt for this fight. It'll buy us one turn.



And Nick will be casting Magibait to compliment Antivolt.



Gilbert won't cast Crusade just yet. I had him do that in an earlier take, and it backfired horribly on me. I'm sure some of you can figure out why.



Unfortunately, Fedot's not really gonna do much in this fight.



Aliara's Force Skill isn't gonna be a factor here. She's just gonna spam Revenge throughout the fight.






: N-Nick. A-are you s-sure this is quite safe?

: Don't worry, if Aegis cooperates, we'll be just fine!

: That's what I'm worried about...

: As tempting as it would be to leave the Dark Hunter to fend for himself after all the shit I've witnessed him pull off, and all of you as well, I do have to admit I'm curious to see what's at the top of this Labyrinth. So let's just get this over with.





: Fear nothing! How the fuck does this even work?



I know Gilbert isn't a damage dealer, but yech.

: O-o-over h-here! Ohhh, I don't think I did much!

: Just stay still, Gilbert. Heh heh heh.





: My pain is your pain!



: BEHIND ME!





: Was that supposed to hurt? I feel like I just got a relaxing massage.





: Ha! Told ya it would work!

Even if the damage from attacks are blocked, counters will still activate, so Dark Hunters synergize well with Protectors.



: Ah, how relaxing...









: Oh wonderful, I'm still alive! And what a refreshing aura!

Behold, the true power of the Dark Hunter! Nick just did a total of 1372 damage! This is without buffs, for the record.



: Oh that feels nice.





: Oh come on, Aegis! How am I supposed to make the dragon suffer if I can't share my pain with it!?

: Oh I'm sorry, would you rather have been electrocuted by its breath? Because I can just leave you die, you know.

: Grr...

And this is the problem with a max level Antivolt. It heals Aliara so she won't be able to deal damage with Revenge anymore. I could just leave it at level 8 so it would just nullify the damage, but Antivolt is much less reliable at that point, and I didn't want to play around with RNG for this fight. This is why I held off on casting Crusade. Otherwise Antivolt would've completely healed Aliara, and left her with no way to damage Dragon.



: Uhh...

: Bravo leader, I'm sure those bullets heavily wounded the dragon.

: Oh quiet.

Yeah, Fedot's not really equipped for this fight.



Aegis is gonna buy us another free turn.



Dragon has a bunch of physical attacks it can use, so Bait is a relatively safe bet here. Although if it decides to use a buff, Nick won't do anything.



Now I'm gonna have Gilbert cast Crusade. It should increase Nick's attack power, and raise the HP cap for Aliara.



Fedot still won't do much.



And the HP boost from Crusade will give Aliara enough extra HP to start nuking down Dragon again.




: Go ahead, attack me! I dare ya! I'm perfectly defenseless!



: Don't mind me, I'm just going to... stand over here. In front of the Dark Hunter. And the Troubadour. And well, everyone else.



: May you all find your inner strength, and the courage to fight!



: Hahaha! Now that's more like it!



This is probably the best thing that could have happened this turn. Blow is a physical AOE that deals Bash damage, and has a chance to Terrify your party members.



: Nope.



: Tsk tsk. I thought you would've learned by now, but I guess not.











And Nick just dealt a total of 2053 damage to Dragon! Yeah, when I said Dark Hunters were broken, I wasn't kidding.



: HAHAHAHAHA!





This is after the damage boost. Fedot really doesn't have much to do here.



Now just in case things go wrong here, I'm gonna try to have Aegis Provoke Dragon's single target attacks.



Nick is gonna set up a Dominate.



Gilbert's job is done.



Fedot's gonna help Nick set up a Dominate now.



Aliara's just gonna do the same as always.




: FIGHT ME!







: Stay still for a sec, will ya?





: YEEEHAAAWW!!











Now that Dragon is all tied up, this is the perfect time to show off Ecstasy.



Corrupt is a move that Dragon uses when your party has too many buffs. It'll dispel every single buff and will either Curse your party members, or instantly kill them. Also after using it, it'll use Voltage again. While Painless can protect against the Curse and instant death components, it can't protect the team from debuffs or dispels. But you know what can?



Head binds!

: Aww, what's the matter little dragon? That muzzle's a little too uncomfortable for you? Maybe you'll feel better after I do this!

: Oh god. Everyone, look away now!



: OH YEEAAAAAAH! Ahhh...

: MY EYES HAVE BEEN TAINTED! FOREVER BURNED IN MY MIND! AGAIN!

: I never thought I would be the one to ask this question to anyone, but WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, NICK!?

: I warned you.

: That. Was. AWESOME! DO IT AGAIN!

: No! Don't! No one needs to witness that twice! Or at all!

Ecstasy nukes a fully bound target for 750% damage! It's super easy to set up thanks to Dominate. But since Dominate didn't exist in the later games, they tried to rebalance those versions of the skill by making the damage scale with the amount of binds. EO4's version wasn't that good since it dispelled the binds on the target. EOU got rid of the bind dispelling aspect, and it ended up being a really good skill to use. It somehow avoided being hit with the nerf bat in the EO2 remake, and actually got buffed if you can believe it. A level 20 version of Ecstasy deals 2000% damage to a fully bound target.





Chipping away at Dragon a bit more.





: Well, if the little lady insists...

: Yay!

: You are the absolute worst.

: I'll never understand what goes through her mind.





Dragon will keep trying to cast Corrupt since our party has 15 buffs, but since his head is bound, he's effectively helpless.



: Ha ha!







Unfortunately, Ecstasy does a terrible amount of damage if the target isn't fully bound.

: Oh thank goodness! My eyes are spared from another tragedy!

: You're dead to me, Nick.

: No, come on I can still-



: DEAD TO ME!



And Dragon goes down!

PC-88 Version



I didn't get the conditional drop, but we'll have another opportunity to fight Dragon later. And since he's a postgame boss, he doesn't give out any exp.

PC-88 Version



: H-holy crap! Did we just... beat a dragon!?

: I believe we just did.

: Hmm. Can't say I was expecting us to pull that off. Good job Hexer. And Nick.

: Heh th-

: For the record, you still disgust me.

: That was awesome! I can't believe we did that!

: Hoo boy. Yeah, good job all of you. Huh? Looks like Dragon dropped something.

Who could have foreseen this? It can only be the fruit of your daily training regimen! The dragon soars into the sky and disappears elsewhere in the Labyrinth. Exulting in your victory, you carefully stow your spoils of battle, and leave the area.



And now our guild is filthy rich again. If you manage to kill Dragon, he'll drop 50,000en. See, unlike the mission with Salamox, which was mandatory, quests can be put off for later. So Atlus had this prepared in case this quest was taken on when a party would be strong enough to take down Dragon.

: Well that should make up for some of the money we lost because of Nick's spending habits.

: Hey! That whip was a good purchase! I tamed a dragon with it!

: ...I guess I can't argue with that.

PC-88 Version



: Ahhh, yeh did it! A messenger from the Grand Duchy just came to deliver the news. Something about that monster's howl was warping the forest. It's one eerie place, with monsters like that around. Anyways, glad to have yeh back. Here's the reward... Care to make a donation? Come back anytime! Haw haw haw!



Cass does not have any alternate dialogue if you managed to kill Dragon. He doesn't give you an extra reward either, Dragon already gave you one.



The Volt Scale sells for quite a lot, even though it's just Dragon's regular drop. Oh if only that were the case in EO1. Remember that Dragon is a postgame boss. As for what it unlocks...



The Volt Orb provides 100% resistance against Volt attacks, but not too many enemies use elemental attacks. It's only useful if you're trying to fight Dragon again, and I'm not really sure immunity to an element is worth an accessory slot. Still, I gained 70,000en, so money isn't a problem for me again. So I'd say that was well worth it.



Once again Atlus, fantastic game balance.