Part 76: Ruthless Warrior of the Turbulent Times - Lu Bu - Part 1

Ruthless Warrior of the Turbulent Times - Lu Bu






So we have our one and only Berserker in this game, and the last of Tamamo's faction. Lu Bu was a general who lived during the late Eastern Han period (the 190s AD). His military career began under the patronage of a minor warlord named Ding Yuan, in the first of many such incidents, Lu Bu betrayed his master for Dong Zhou, the power behind the Han government during this period. After a few years of service to Zhou, he turned against him as well, killing him personally and being awarded a few accoldes from a Han minister.

After receiving these honors, he would drift from being subordinate to one warlord in northern / central China after another (the Han government being weak during this period and much of the country being in the control of warlords). His undoing came during the period in which Yuan Shu, one of these folks, declared himself emperor, an affront to the central government. Lu Bu joined forces with a man named Cao Cao in attacking the pretender, but switched sides yet again back to Yuan Shu and subsequently became the enemy of Cao Cao, whose forces, combined with Liu Bei, finally managed to defeat the Flying General, and after being captured, Cao Cao would order his execution. All told, in the span of less than 10 years, he switched sides about 8 times (his biggest dick move being his betrayal of Liu Bei, who sheltered him in Xu Province, and took the province out from under him, thinking Liu Bei would turn against him). Central China was a complicated place back then.

Aspects of his life would be later dramatized in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I think his numerous betrayals are less because of his own personality (though it certainly helped), and just because of a weak central government that couldn't exert any real influence over what was going on within its borders. Such a situation allows men like Lu Bu to flourish as long as they have their own martial prowess (which Lu Bu did, to be fair), and to always orient himself toward the winning side whenever things got hairy or when he saw a chance to achieve an easy win and further his own career. Basically, Lu Bu had no particular skill in politics and had no real end game besides maximizing his own power as quickly as possible.

But as for our general's next campaign, the first battle will bring him to Orchid Words 1.






Lu Bu stage 1

Now, my loyal generals, the time has come to prove your fealty to the new King and Queen of SE.RA.PH! ...Basically, we just need to kick the invaders out. Anybody up for it?

If we're just talking brute strength, Karna or Lu Bu would be great, but I think they're TOO strong. They'd probably end up damaging the Capital itself. Elizabeth or I would be the most suitable, since we could fight without too much collateral damage.

Who, me? I mean, I can do it, if you don't mind me putting off my cleaning duty...

Oh ho, I see, you do have a point. No one can pull the wool over Rider's eyes, especially since they're already covered. But our maid does still have some cleaning to do, especially in My Room. So I suppose Ms. Rider-

▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅ ... (How soon, how soon can I hunt down this fox...?)

As I've mentioned before, early Berserkers in this series were incapable of speech thanks to their class skill, Mad Enhancement, and could only communicate by roaring (with some very small exceptions). The earliest exception to this rule was, I believe, Spartacus from Apocrypha (2012). Not exactly a well-spoken sort, him, but he could still talk and be (somewhat) understood. Grand Order ups the ante with most Berserkers in the game being capable of speech with various levels of sanity. However, it's good to know even the roaring Zerkers are still capable of thought, it's just you'd have to be a Han Solo sort to understand what they're saying.

Oh my, Mr. Lu Bu! You're usually so ready for nap time, but today you seem postively vigorous! Aww, I understand you perfectly, and your loyalty is so very touching. You just want to go into battle, even though you're not really suitable right now. ...So shall our great undefeated general leave for battle! Go forth and protect our precious Millennium Capital from the wicked grasp of our enemies!

▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅▅▅ --!! (After I've destroyed the intruders, you're next, fox. Just hold onto your tail and wait...)

Are you sure about this, Caster? Lu Bu...

No, the Queen has spoken. It's not our place to question her.

I...suppose not. If it's good enough for Rider, it's good enough for me.

Huh? What? What are you talking about? Lu BU's gonna go scatter all the invaders, right?

▂▂▃▃▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅ ---!! (Without a doubt. I am invincible. After the fox hunt, it would please me to hunt down the newt too.)

Ooh, spoken like a man ready for battle. Now that's what I expect from my very loyal-est general. ...Elizabeth!

W-What?! Don't shock me, I haven't done anything!

Go with the Great General and help him find his way. You know this place like the back of your hand. Find the invaders and lure them toward him.

Tamamo thinking tactically? Quite a surprise.

Ah, got it. Yeah, that I can do. I'll go be Lu Bu's eyes and ears!

▂▂▃▃▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅ --!! (This will be a warmup. I will test my blade on the throats of my enemies.)







So we finally take control of Lu Bu himself. Two points you really should be aware of: Lu Bu is extremely strong and has a lot of very powerful special moves. His S S T is basically worthless compared to S S S T, but he has a great ability to handle group and single combat thanks to a long-reaching halberd and several crowd control abilities.

The other thing you should be aware of? He is *slow*. Really really slow. His base movement speed makes Iskandar look like a lightning bolt across the battlefield. Compared to Cu, the Hound of Culann practically teleports around the battlefield. I knew going in his movement speed is very slow, and I wanted to not alter Servants' parameters that are meant for balancing, but when doing an LP, or even playing this game naturally, Lu Bu's speed just makes him really not that fun to play with, simply because it takes so damn long to get anywhere. I'll be doing this stage without the Reduced Earth Install Skill, just so you can see his sluggishness, but don't worry. 2 and 3 I'll be going much faster.



This is his S S T attack I mentioned. Basically after a powerful overhead chop (this will be a theme with his special attacks), he'll throw a spear forward that causes a minor explosion at the end. The spear doesn't have much range or do much damage, so the utility of this move is quite low. It's there, is about all I can say about it.



S T is quite a bit more handy. He'll roar so loud he emits a damaging sphere around him, protecting him from attacks on all sides as well as doing quite a bit of damage on its own. This is gonna be your primary means of stacking on additional damage in single-combat, as well as being the only one of his special moves that protects him from behind.



Continuing on the theme of Lu Bu's mastery of arms, his S S S T is that ever-damaging bow and arrow he's hit me with a few times as an enemy. Like when he is our adversary, this is considerably damging, has a relatively short charge-up time, and flies a very far away from him, damaging everything in its path. If you'll remember Nameless' Caladbolg, it's very much equivalent to that, except even better. Pretty much a staple for him. Even better is because the immediate hit before he fires, an upward slash, will knock enemies into the air so they can't retaliate against the damage headed right toward them.

After defeating Cu, I went to go help out Elizabeth, and she had this to say about Lu Bu roaring again.

I-It's not my fault! Besides, I can't understand what you're saying anyway!

If only his dialogue were subtitled more. The Emperor of Roses had this to say...

Don't just roar at me! Say something for once!

--!!

Heh, I suppose you're a worthy opponent! Now I am on fire as well!



It should be noted that Lu Bu can tank through hits most normal Servants would be stunned by, but even he'll go flying if hit with a strong enough attack / several attacks in a row.



His final special attack, after four S's, is a simple combo that ends with him briefly roaring. It...gets a bit more impressive once he has all his special moves unlocked.



One thing I noticed thanks to that hapless Aggressor there is that if you send a target flying with the arrow, and they get hit by the explosion, they take two big hits.



Even the "Dash-jump" method of getting around doesn't help Lu Bu that much to get around the battlefield. The Flying General, ironically, is quite sluggish. When I finally completed the Regime Matrix, something very odd happened.





I started to using my NP, but it didn't activate. He did the pose and everything, but nothing happened. I think the start of the Regime Matrix being completed messed with the animation playing, but that's yet another first for me. Speaking of his NP...











God Force, the name of Lu Bu's Noble Phantasm, is a curious case. The true name of Lu Bu's Houtengageki (the actual name of the weapon he uses. It looks like a halberd, is why I've been calling it that). Devised by a man named Chen Gong, one of Lu Bu's real-life patrons (and a dude who was executed along with his master), it's a weapon that combines multiple forms of warfare into a single weapon (slashing, thrusting, battering, scything, and sweeping) for the warlord. However, as he is a Berserker, he can't take advantage of the multiple forms it can take and he only uses its cannon (which is why he shoots arrows as a Noble Phantasm), and halberd functions.



I didn't want to cheese Li Shuwen so much with a Moon Drive, but I've got two Sectors under attack that could fall any moment and ruin my EX rank. I didn't want to spend any more time on this map with how slow Lu Bu is.



It's not pretty, but it'll do.







Thank you for such a great victory, General Lu Bu Fengxian. Next, um...I'm really sorry, but could you keep on going toward the Middle Territories? See, I thought that it was strange that they were being such gracious losers, but it looks like Saber's troops just picked a different territory of ours to attack. It wouldn't look good for our empire if those territories went Roman. So, Great General? Could you go seize those Middle Territories back for us, please? I'm not ordering you, but pretty please. My Master and I both believe in you. Surely, such a great man like our very best general will save us in our hour of need, won't he? ...I mean, if you're feeling up to it. Are you tired at all?

▂▂▃▃▅▅ (Tired? No. Angry at the implication that such a trivial chore would tire me? Very much so.

Hey, are you okay? Did you burn through too much mana in that last fight? I heard Berserkers' mileage kind of sucks.

▂▂▃▃▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅ --!! (Soon, all my enemies will know that I am supreme!!)

Yeah, how does mana transfer even work in this new SE.RA.PH anyways? Umm...

It should be that the Moon Cell provides mana to us. But that mana isn't endless. If you run dry, you'll have to recover. In our case, we can recover automatically by returning to a home base with a King's Throne. That throne is effectively an aspect of the Regalia. When we're near it, we recover exponentially faster. ...Or so I've heard. I don't completely understand it myself.

Oh so that's how it works. Huh. I hadn't really thought about it.

You should have been able to sense it for yourself. Your lack of awareness is the reason you're still a maid.

▂▂▃▃▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅ ▂▂▃▃▅▅ --!!! (Yes, I will show them what it means to be their master. Then, fox, I will take care of you.)

He only seems to be getting more upset. This conversation should probably end soon.

Oh, look at the Great General! So ready to fight! Well, if you don't mind, please do take those middle territories for us! Thanks in advance~!