Exit Fate Part #44 - Comic Relief No More

Part 44: Comic Relief No More

Welcome back. Last time on Exit Fate, we went to Tal Gren, the capital of the eastern mountain tribes, in order to meet with Pereious and convince him to help us fight off Almenga at Ft. Brahma. But in a stunning display of willpower the likes of which we haven't seen from any other character, Pereious refused. That said, he did give us a little advice, namely that the commander in charge of Ft. Brahma is a lazy ass, and that we can use that to our advantage. Bast has come up with a plan, so it's time for us to head back to Elysium and set it in motion. So let's get to it.

Music: Tal Gren - Wild Arms 2, "Guildgrad"

Following our meeting with Pereious, we find ourselves outside his residence in Tal Gren. Before we head back to Elysium, we might as well look around town and see what services are on offer.

First up is a magic shop next door, which has...

Oh hell yeah! All six buff spells are now for sale, and we're going to have quite a collection of these by the time the game is over. Since we haven't seen all of these yet, here's a list of what they do:

Regen heals the target for 10% of their max HP every time their turn comes around.
Lock causes the target's status to become "locked." While active, the target cannot gain any new status effects, and any statuses already active will not expire until Lock does as well. Lock applies to both beneficial and detrimental statuses, and has a much longer duration than any of them, so while it's nice as a way of protecting from bad statuses, its real use is to extend other buffs far beyond their normal length.
Haste greatly increases the target's SPD and grants them many more turns than normal.
Barrier halves all incoming physical damage on the target.
Shield halves all incoming magical damage on the target.
Blink causes the target to start phasing in and out of existence, granting them a flat 1-in-3 chance to "blink" out of the way of any incoming damage, physical or magical. This effect is in addition to any physical dodge chance and is the only way in the game for a character to dodge magic.

As much as I love the buffs in this game, though, we're not quite at the level yet where we can cast them regularly, and in any case, they won't become really useful until we have a bunch of copies of Lock to extend their duration. So for now I'm instead going to buy three copies of the newly available Cure-All. At 90/108 MP, it's even more magically expensive than the buffs, but it's a fantastic panic button for our non-mages, who are building up lots of MP at this point (especially Klaus) and don't have enough MAG for Mend-All to really be effective. Rest assured, though, that we'll be doing a lot of buff-purchasing in a short while.

Also in town is a blacksmith, who is level 12. I use our remaining money to boost Jovian, Ayara, and Klaus's weapon damage.

And that's about all there is to see in Tal Gren. Leaving the city would just take us back to the end of the Jinen Gama, but Rashnu is willing to transport us back to the entrance.

And once we're there, we talk to the soldier to take us back to Elysium.

Music: Mission - Xenogears, "Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong"

What you've told us is more than enough evidence that they have no intention of working together with us. Building a plan around Pereious's single meeting with an Almenga officer is ludicrous.

Just because I have no suggestion of my own doesn't mean we should blindly follow yours.

Calm down. We haven't even heard Bast's actual plan yet.

Yes. You said Pereious suggested taking our men across the river, but even if we're careful, we'd still be taking a huge risk. This Almenga colonel may not be on his toes, but it only takes one patrol to spot us before we're ready and it's all over.

Don't worry. I've already taken that into account. I'm not counting on a victory like at the Shiva Passage. That'd be impossible. No, there's definitely going to be a battle at Ft. Brahma, and it's going to cost us. All I want to do is tip the balance in our favor. Daniel and I already agreed on the details on the way back, so let me get to the point immediately.

We're not sending anything more than that, so even in the event that we're caught by surprise, we won't lose a lot of men. If it does happen, we'll either flee or surrender depending on the circumstances. I'm relying on Daniel and Keyser to capture the fortress quickly in that case.

So we covertly send a few hundred to the other side of the river. That's reasonable. But then what? A force that small will hardly be effective as a second front.

Oh, it will be. See, this is what I think will happen. Our forces will go in first and throw them off-guard. They won't be as stupid to leave the rear completely undefended, so that's as far as we'll take it. Once they're focused on the back, Daniel will move in and launch the main offensive. We'll stay as support, but hold back a bit. Let's keep them guessing about our real numbers. Initially, I was worried about Pereious's words. This Regin fellow might be lazy, but if there's no way out, he'd probably fight to the end.

The river?

Exactly. I know they've got a few ships left at the fortress. We'll win the battle. That was never in question. But now, as soon as our victory becomes a fact, their defense will collapse completely. Chaos will ensue as they'll all scramble to get on those few boats, or even try to swim away.

I see. By leaving a path open, you want to entice them to flee.

The surprise of a back attack will shake their conviction enough, and it'll reduce their hopes for backup.

We've already waited long enough. There's no infallible strategy for taking on the fortress, so I think this is what we should go with. Unless someone has strong concerns about the plan, I order everyone to make their preparations.

So I'll be going with Major Gunwood and General Knight? I'm best at leading archers. If our job is to put on some pressure without putting ourselves at too much risk, long range attacks like that are exactly what we need.

Yes. I'll keep that in mind. Keyser, anything from you?

I'll go along with the plan. The risks are not much higher than if we were to attack normally.

Fade to black...

Well, that sounds simple enough. Before we head off to battle, though, it's time for us to check out the hidden cave here that I mentioned last update.

Music: None

The cave itself is incredibly small, but has a few treasures. The Golden Hat is a light helmet that grants +8 PDF for 4 weight, which isn't too bad.

At the north end of the cave is this fellow. Let's see what he's got to say.

Enthralling, isn't it? Might as well try to recruit him.

What's going on here?

We're not alone.

The screen shakes as Daniel turns around.

Huh?

I told you to be quiet. I'm not ready to take him on yet. Deal with him yourself.

Wait, who...

OPTIONAL BOSS: Demilich

Music: Boss Battle - Wild Arms 2, "Battle vs. Solid"

Say hello to the Demilich, another returning boss from Last Scenario. Well, he's just a skull with a cape, he can't be that--

Thankfully, the Demilich has other moves besides Sinkhole, and he'll only use Sinkhole once every few turns. His other moves are no slouch, though. Aura of Fear inflicts some decent damage, and KOs Angel right after I got her up again. I spent most of this fight reviving her, to be honest.

He's also got Unholy Touch, which isn't too bad...

... as well as Eclipse, but our party has enough HP to survive it.

The Demilich isn't too bad provided you bring along a few Restores to take care of his Sinkhole attacks. Apart from that, he's not a major threat.

He also carries a Black-Green Cloak, a pretty cool mage robe that grants +15 MDF and +5 MAG for 7 weight.

With exactly 3333 HP, the Demilich doesn't last long.

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

He drops a big chunk of money and Menu Set #3.

Menu Set #3 is the Antagonist Set, but the antagonist of what, I have no idea. Anyone recognize this one?

Music: None

I was training to defeat him.

Training?

I am training.

What, by standing here in this cave?

Yes.

Oh.

Sormaus only has one thing going for him, and that is his survivability. His max HP is the highest in the game, and that combined with his decent PDF means he can take quite a beating. His offense, however, leaves a bit to be desired. His STR is all right, but his SPD is terrible (especially considering he's not wearing any armor and everyone in our party is still faster than him) and his accuracy could use some work. I'm not a huge fan.

Sormaus attacks with some weird axe thing.

Music: Elysium - Chrono Trigger, "Frog's Theme (Orchestral Version)"

Anyway, now that we're done with that, it's time to launch our attack on Ft. Brahma. We've got a little bit of army maintenance to do first, though.

Since Merrick is going to need to defend himself a little better, I replace Mike and Reod in his unit with Soth and Harvey for a defensive boost and the Shield skill.

Eander grabs Shin for the hell of it, bringing him to 10 attack.

Erin replaces Col and Meiko with Darwin and Sef for a slight boost in men as well as the Analyze and Light Feet skills.

Marian replaces Tiffany with our new buddy Sormaus, granting her an attack boost and the Berserker skill. Berserker is great for sorcery units since they don't have to worry about getting counterattacked.

Finally, Keyser replaces Joe with Reod, removing the Evasion skill, which he hasn't really been using...

... and I hand Joe over to Jovian, who will probably need Evasion more.

Let's do it.

Fade to black...

Music: None

We'd better not waste any time. Let's give Daniel the signal, and then move out.

Yeah! Let's take down that fortress! Just tell us what to do, Major. I'll do whatever you ask of me.

There's nothing more to it than I already told you. Put some pressure on them without putting ourselves at too much risk. I'll leave the rest up to you. You're both experienced enough to know what to do. All right, let's go!

Eerie?

I just have this strange feeling... like a sense of impending doom...

Hey, cut it out! Are you trying to make us nervous? It's too late to second-guess the plan.

It's not about the battle, it's... I just think I've felt like this before...

Fade to black...

Music: War Battle - Final Fantasy IX, "Consecutive Battles"

I don't know if SCF was going for the "incredibly average" look for Regin, but if he was, he nailed it.

But sir... they're coming from the wrong direction! They're behind us!

... Huh?

They managed to cross the river? How many of them are there?

We can't tell. We can spot a few hundred heading this way, but there are more hiding inside the forest. It's impossible to say.

Crap... I didn't expect them to take their forces across the river. Quick! Move our defenses to the rear!

S-Sir!

They've got us trapped in here!? All right, don't panic! We're still stronger than them! We can win this battle!

This is another rather annoying battle. We've got the advantage in manpower, but the positioning of our units and the behavior of the AI makes it very difficult to win this battle without either beelining for Regin (and leaving several of the enemies behind) or losing a bunch of our own units. I'll do what I can, but an A-rank is no longer a guarantee.

As mentioned, Regin is the enemy commander. His unit's pretty solid, but it's beatable. The trick is getting him into a position where we can bring our full strength against him.

The strategy for our units on the eastern front is going to be simple: RUN AWAY. While a good chunk of the enemy units are programmed to head towards these guys, the #1 priority for getting even a decent rank on this battle is convincing Regin to head west. Our eastern units simply can't handle him, and if he engages them then our western units are going to have to spend several turns crossing the entire bridge just to reach him, which will tank our score. Having our eastern units run away at the start gives Regin a good chance of heading the other way.

Our western units make a general advance. While our cavalry could make an early charge, they're not going to be able to do much without getting cut down immediately, especially with their low defenses. So we'll have to make sure they don't get too far out ahead.

The western enemy units start making their way west, while the eastern units head east. Regin himself seems to be heading east as well, which is a bit worrying.

Well, we're just going to have to convince him a little harder, then. Our eastern units head into the trees.

Meanwhile, our western units continue their advance while still remaining out of enemy range. Hopefully this'll do it.

Fortunately for us, it works. The western enemy units barely move at all, but Regin moves in to join them. The eastern units continue their advance towards the units in the forest.

I use turn 3 to consolidate our western forces somewhat, while also baiting the enemy into making the first strike. Griever is now in range of the enemy scout, but he's the only enemy unit that can attack us.

Bast and friends continue chillin' in the forest.

Not surprisingly, the enemy scout takes the bait, bringing Griver down to 343 men.

He also pulls several of the western units with him, including Regin. The eastern units slowly march along.

Welp, might as well take out the scout. Shiro takes a shot at him...

... and Daniel moves in to clean up.

Unfortunately, that's about all we can do on this turn without overextending ourselves. We set up a wall with what we've got.

Finally, some action. Outsider tanks a hit from the forward cavalry.

Erin does likewise.

And the final cavalry realizes that going for Daniel is kind of a dumb idea and goes after Keyser instead. But Keyser's high defenses mean he takes the least amount of damage of the three, and does the most in return. Keyser is left with 455 men, since you can't see it under the big number.

The rest of the western units hang back somewhat, while the eastern units continue plodding along.

And it's time for us to attack in earnest. Daniel makes the first strike and takes out the northern cavalry.

Shiro follows up by taking out the southern one...

... and Outsider and Erin team up to defeat the last.

The rest of our units form up behind them. We're going to take some hits, but everyone should remain alive.

And for once, our eastern units start moving forward, if only a single square.

Outsider continues taking hits like a champ.

And Jovian finally sees some action, taking a hit from the enemy scout.

Keyser and Erin also get attacked, but they're okay.

Regin hangs back a bit. We're going to want to take him out fast before he gets a chance to start running.

Eander starts turn 6 by putting his 10 attack to good use and one-shotting the enemy sorcery unit.

Then we get to work on the infantry. Shiro takes out one...

... and Marian gets to work on another.

Ljusalf decides to attack the third infantry, though.

Next up, Griever charges forward to attack...

... and Nashal takes Erin's place to kill a second infantry.

Outsider and Paris team up to destroy the last one...

... and Daniel moves into Regin's range to challenge him to a duel.

Meanwhile, Merrick slams the enemy scout while the other eastern units form up behind him.

There's not all that much left for the Almengan army to do. The scout takes a shot at Bast, but that's the only attack the eastern units can make.

Regin accepts Daniel's challenge and hits him hard. Even with Regenerate, Daniel isn't in good shape.

But that's okay, because we've pretty much got this one in the bag.

We may as well take out what we can on the eastern side. Jovian takes care of the scout, but none of the other units are within killing range.

And then everyone unloads on Regin.

G-Get out of my way! This is my boat! Find your own, or just go swim!

Music: War Battle Won - Suikoden V, "Cry Victory!"

Move in and clean things up! Take anyone still left inside prisoner, and keep an eye out for their commander!

Well, that's about the best we could have hoped for, I think. This is about the point in the game where A-ranks on war battles start getting very hard to obtain, either due to our unit layout or the enemy units being too powerful. As I mentioned earlier, I will be doing my best, but I don't think we'll be seeing too many A-ranks from here on out.

Our reward for the B-rank is a Rainbow Ore, which means we've got another Spectral Prism coming our way. The A-rank reward for this battle is a Barrier spell, while the C-rank reward is a Golden Helmet, which grants +11 PDF for 6 weight.

Music: Kirgard - Suikoden V, "Harbor Town by the Lighthouse"

Nice work, Daniel. This brings us one step closer to the capital.

It looks like their commander escaped though. A few witnesses said he hurried off in one of the boats as soon as the battle seemed over.

Haha! It's great, isn't it? Just as we expected! Who cares if he escaped. All that matters is that we won the battle. We didn't need him. He wasn't a big fish. No, the one we really want to catch is that shark at St. Reinard.

Welcome back, Jovian. Good to see you made it back in one piece.

Come on, you didn't doubt that for a moment, did you? Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. I'm off to take a well-deserved bath. See you later.

Missing some of his men? Something happened after the battle? Hmm, I'll go take a look then.

Fade to black...

Music: Suspicion 2 - Suikoden V, "Standing Firm"

We're not exactly sure what happened yet, but we lost a scout team in the forest ahead.

Hmm... You think it's an ambush?

It's the only explanation I can give, but something's not right. We should've been able to detect any major troop movements, and if the enemy was hidden there during the battle, why didn't they attack us? I was about to send a second team to find out more.

A bad feeling? That's all the more reason not to go yourself.

If this is what I think it is... it won't matter how many scouts you send. It's something I'll have to check out myself.

I hope you're right about this.

Well then, looks like something's definitely up. We're given the chance to save and change our party here, but we're good, so let's head onwards.

Music: None

Music: Darkness - Chrono Cross, "Dragon's Prayer"

Well well, if it isn't our favorite commandos. But they've undergone quite a change. It's worth noting that both of them are floating in midair.

Uh... well. This can't be good.

Something unfortunate to happen.

While the opposite is true.

We have been blessed.

How... How is this possible? Are you... --No! That can't be! Y-You're not human!

Human?

What is... "human"?

Why would we desire to be human?

We are more than human.

We have transformed.

Ascended.

Evolved.

A forbidden power.

But the price we paid was small.

What!? Brunhild did this?

She did.

Wait! Her father? She knows our father!?

Oh?

He doesn't know.

How sad.

We could hear it.

There was no mistake.

The... the emperor? What... what do you mean? What is going on?

Unfortunately...

You will die an ignorant man.

At last!

Victory will finally be ours!

BOSS FIGHT: Demon Trevor & Demon Sick

Music: Demon Battle - Wild Arms 3, "Black As Sin, Red As Blood"

Really, Trevor? Incredible demonic powers wasn't enough? You had to get yourself an even bigger sword?

Well, compensating aside, the new Trevor and Sick do not fuck around. This is obvious from the moment the battle begins, as Sick is even faster than Klaus. Worse yet, he uses his first move to cast Inspiration, a general buff like Soth's Channel Power.

And if that weren't bad enough, the boost from Inspiration is enough to vault Trevor ahead of Klaus, and he follows up with Desperation, a general debuff on us. As you can see, Trevor and Sick are quickly moving their way up the turn order.