Part 23: Elementary, My Dear

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we met with Galius, the governor of Oischin and head priest of Cento Temple, and agreed to help him out with the elemental attacks that had been occurring lately. The priests have tracked the elementalists to a nearby mansion, so our mission is fairly straightforward. Let's get to it.



Let's head on over to that mansion, shall we? It's right next door.





Before we head inside, however, Daniel takes the time to demonstrate our new Photon Beam spell for us. It looks an awful lot like Lightray. Aren't "Lightray" and "Photon Beam" basically synonyms anyway?



Photon Beam's damage, however, far outstrips its little brother's.



Music: Elemental Mansion - Wild Arms 2, "Dungeon: Anastasia's World"





Anyway, let's take a look around here. The obvious move is to head straight up the stairs in the main hall and as far into the mansion as possible, but the central room on the second floor has a locked door at the north end. There's also two oddly-covered flames nearby. We'll just have to go elsewhere.



There are a bunch of doors on the first floor, so let's just head through the one on the left.



The first thing we see upon entering is a puddle. Obviously that means we need to step on it for experimentation purposes.





Oh. It starts a battle, with the appropriately-named Deep Puddle.





Deep Puddles cast Waterfall. That's it. That's all they ever do, just cast Waterfall over and over. But Waterfall packs a serious punch, and the repeated castings can easily overwhelm us.




Much like the Puddles we fought way back on Helman Island, Deep Puddles also have extremely high PDF, though thankfully not so high that Shiro and Bast can't damage them. Magic is the way to go. Unlike regular Puddles, however, Deep Puddles' HP are actually quite high.



They're beatable, but generally an enemy you don't want to fuck with. Fortunately, they only show up when we step in puddles on the field.




The actual regular encounters for this area are, as Galius told us, elementals.






Black Elementals, as you might expect, love using dark spells like Poison and Shadowcast. But since dark attack magic deals less damage the more targets there are, their magic isn't particularly worrying for a party of six.




They also have a decent physical attack, but they stick to magic most of the time.



They have pretty low HP and PDF, so we can take them out fairly easily.





The next few rooms of the mansion contain a shitload of puddles, but they're static, so we can walk around them with little effort.




We also run into some Blue Elementals. Blue Elementals are assholes.




Blue Elementals have no physical attack and cast a lot of Splash, but that's not why they're jerks.





Their real asshole move is Whirlpool, a special attack that does 70-80 damage, can hit anyone on the field, and has a chance of silencing the target. Blue Elementals always show up in the back row, usually behind other enemies, so you're guaranteed to get hit with a whole bunch of strong water attacks before you take them down. Once they're exposed, though, they have very little HP and die quickly.



Battles are a lot more harrowing here than what we've been used to, but we survive.




Then, in the next room, we find puddles that are moving from side to side. The one in the back in particular is speeding back and forth like a spastic kid on a sugar high. Unfortunately I hit one of them trying to get through.




There's a treasure chest in one of the rooms here surrounded by puddles. The outer ones are spinning around the chest, but the inner ones don't move, so we have to fight at least one Deep Puddle to get to the treasure.



It's worth it though. This goes to Myst, replacing one of his Stone Amulets for a net +1 boost to MP+.




In the next room over, we find a blue flame similar to the one in the central room.




Touching it starts a battle with a few Blue Elementals. But they're exposed and also set up perfectly for a Lightning spell, so they're not too hard.



Killing them causes the blue flame to go out.



As we're exiting the room, however, we run into a group of this area's final enemy type: White Elementals.






White Elementals are probably the easiest elementals of the bunch, since neither their physical nor magical damage is particularly high. They also don't have much HP.




They do know Freezing Touch, but thankfully they're not scripted to immediately attack frozen characters like the Frostmonger was. Most of the time you can ignore the status and you'll be okay.




In the next room we find... er, what is this thing exactly?



It goes into the Special section of our inventory and is described as a "Suikoden Set." I wonder what it does? We can't do anything with it right now, so we'll find out later.





As we exit to the south we find ourselves back in the main hall, and sure enough, the blue flame in the central room is extinguished. Now for the other one.





Whereas the theme of the left half of the mansion was water, the right side's theme is ice. If you've played a lot of videogames before, then you probably already know what the ice on the ground does. Stepping on it will cause you to uncontrollably continue in the direction you moved until you hit steadier ground or an obstacle.




There's a door at the bend of this corridor, but the room behind it is free of anything useful.



The room south of the corridor contains more ice and a treasure chest on either side. This isn't as much of a puzzle as it appears, as the downstairs area of the room doesn't have that much ice on it. We can walk downstairs and grab both chests easily.



Ah yes, Enlight, the dark spell. Well, having a free way of curing Mindblow is pretty nice at least.



And I'm definitely not complaining about this.





Further on, we come to an area that is slightly more difficult to traverse.




Still not too hard though. The rightmost room in this hallway contains the white flame.




Touching it summons a group of White Elementals, whom we've already seen.



And after the battle, the white flame goes out. Time to head back to the central room.




There is one more room to check out, however, which contains the only icy room in the mansion that is an actual puzzle.



There's no way to approach the chest from below, so you have to come around and open the chest from the side instead. The Swift Shoes it contains grant +3 DEX in addition to +2 PDF, for 1 weight. These go to Shiro because why not.



Now then, let's see what's behind this now-open door.




The hallway beyond takes us under the bridge we crossed earlier, and after that...



... we run into a scene.

Music: None





You've managed to avoid me all this time, but there's no running now! It's time to get even!
You... know this man, Deus?



H-How dare you say that!?









The woman we saw previously suddenly teleports in, unlike the other guys who walked in from the north.



Who are you people!?
We are the Caretakers!




Anyway, look here boys, I don't care one bit about your little temple. If you value your lives, you'd better leave quietly.
Never! We will defend Cento Temple by whatever means necessary!




BOSS FIGHT: The Caretakers

Music: Caretakers - Wild Arms 2, "Dungeon: Horror"



That's right, these guys get their own music. This is a fairly interesting fight, because there's no clear first target. All of the Caretakers are threatening in their own way, so while it helps to focus fire on one of them, it isn't immediately obvious whom we should attack first.



For whatever reason, each of the Caretakers will sometimes waste a turn doing something useless. In Tiamat's case, she will sometimes shout orders instead of attacking. The other guys each have their own way of randomly wasting a turn.





Ice is particularly threatening to our mages. He spends a lot of the battle casting Icepunch, which is a physical attack, but he can hit whomever he wants with it. Two will take down either Myst or Midian, so we need to be sure to keep their HP up.





Orlando is the team's status specialist. He follows up by casting Silence, which does what it says on the tin. Probably could have picked a better target though.




Boris, as you might expect, is the physical powerhouse of the group, and he spends most of his turns using Thunder Flail. This deals heavy damage and can paralyze the target, but he has to hit first.





Finally, Tiamat can be quite dangerous, but Life Syphon is not one of the reasons why.



There's not really a coherent strategy for this battle. As mentioned earlier, all of these guys can be dangerous in their own way. My personal plan of attack is to use Myst and Midian to soften everyone up with Shadowcast, and then focus my other fighters on Boris to bring him down quickly, since I really don't want one of my frontliners to get paralyzed. After that the other guys should be hurt enough from the repeated Shadowcasts that it shouldn't take long to take them out.



That said, we obviously have to steal everything first. Rorschach swipes a Chain Belt from Boris, which grants +20 HP.




Things start getting more interesting later in the battle though. Orlando displays his magical prowess by casting Shield, giving us our first look at a buff spell. Buffs in this game are quite powerful, but it'll be a long time before we have any available to us. Like all other spells, buffs come in elemental flavors. Shield, the water-aligned buff, halves all incoming magical damage for several turns.



Boris wastes his turn. I'll take it.




Ice continues the magical display with Frostwave, dealing heavy damage.



vv



Rorschach nicks a Brass Ring from Tiamat, which grants +2 MAG. We've already got a few.




Then things start to go south. Tiamat uses her most dangerous move, Chaos Claw, inflicting the Chaos status on Bast. We don't have a Balance spell in our arsenal, so we're just going to have to wait and hope Bast decides to attack the enemies instead of us.




Boris follows up by actually landing a Thunder Flail, paralyzing Shiro and taking both of our frontliners out of the fight.




Thankfully, Ice declines to press the advantage and combs his hair instead. Rorschach uses the distraction to steal another copy of Frostwave.



But then Orlando has the presence of mind to silence Midian. You fool, you've activated my trap card!










Midian follows up with the Charged Pearl on his next turn and annihilates Tiamat. He's doing far more damage silenced than he was when he was able to speak. I'm not sure what that says about him.



Then it's just a matter of Rorschach getting the final steal...




... and then the Chaos status backfires on the Caretakers and Bast takes out Orlando to end the fight.

Music: Boss Battle Won - Chrono Cross, "Victory (A Cry In Summer)"



Our reward for the battle is a Red Cape, which grants +4 DEX.

Music: None





Hmm... I don't like it when people interfere with my work. I'm growing tired of this place. This temple has lost my interest. We should continue our work somewhere more quiet. We're leaving.
Don't think we won't meet again, Deus! You haven't seen the last of me!




And with a flash, they vanish.

They're gone...
Now we still don't know what they were after... But on the upside, it looks like they've given up on attacking the temple. I think you'll be safe, for the time being.



Fade to black...



Following the scene, we're transported outside of the mansion.



We're not quite done here yet, though.



There's one last thing to pick up. If we head back to where we fought the Caretakers, we can now continue to the north.



The room beyond is where the cutscene that first introduced the Caretakers took place. If you'll recall, there was a treasure chest sitting in that scene, taunting us.



It contains a Purple Herb, the most powerful healing item in the game. Purple Herbs restore two thousand HP, enough to fully heal most characters through the end of the game and beyond. Green Herbs are still more than enough to fully heal us, so this purple one is going to get stored for a rainy day.



Now we're done with the mansion. Let's head back to the temple.

Music: Cento - Suikoden II, "Due Fiumi"



Before we head back to Galius though, a certain person requires our attention. If we try to recruit him now...



All right! I challenge you to a short sprint! What do you say to that?



Hell yeah big guy, let's see what you've got.

We'll do three laps around the center. Let's see who finishes first!




And we're off.



Shadfork is slow. Like, really slow. If you're making any effort at all you'll win this race without a second thought.



By the time I cross the finish line I've nearly lapped him. The Final Fantasy victory fanfare plays as the race ends. I'm pretty sure you all don't need a link to know what that sounds like.



Sweet, looks like we've picked up a new pa--



Wait, what? But I won! Winning this kind of minigame always gets you a reward in these games! What gives?



In actuality, what you're supposed to do here is lose the race.




Hmmm... that, or you -let- me win... But I like you either way! Well, stick boy, let's see what you're made of!







Shadfork does one thing really well: the man is a walking brick wall. With high HP, decent MDF, and the highest natural PDF in the game, Shadfork can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. Unfortunately, however, that is the only area where his hugeness is perfection. Despite a clear inclination for the front row, Shadfork's damage output is middling at best, with an STR comparable to Shiro's but without Shiro's high critical rate. Worse yet, his bulk has a downside: he is also the slowest character in the game. The only real reason to use him is if you really, really feel the need to protect a character behind him, but frankly other frontliners can do that job decently well while still having a much better damage output.





Shadfork fights with a gauntleted fist, but clearly he can't transform his hugeness into power.



Now then, let's go report to Galius.



As we enter, we find a Zelmony soldier waiting for us.



Ah, Daniel. This young man was looking for you, so I had him wait here for your return.
Sir! I have a message for you from the captain!
Captain Erin? What did she say?



Bad news... Hmm, it must be something serious if she has to tell us in person. I'd better do as she said. Galius, we've completed our mission. We weren't able to capture the criminals, but they've left the area. There shouldn't be any more attacks from their elementals.
I'm very glad to hear that. We are in your debt, Daniel. Since you have other duties to attend to, I'll say farewell to you now. It was a pleasure meeting you.




Are you hoping you'll see those "Caretakers" again by coming with me? That bearded man did seem to know you...
It has nothing to do with him. It's obvious these people aren't sane. If we encounter them again, I will ensure that they won't trouble us any longer. Galius, please let me go with him. I think we owe him at least that much.




Thank you.







It was nothing. We gained much more from this than you did. I'll stop wasting your time now. I wish you the best of luck in the future.




Next time: We tie up a few loose ends on our way back to Elysium, and get the bad news.