Part 45: Update XLI - Old man
Update XLI - Old manMusic: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor
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Yeah, there's absolutely no difference in dungeons. Same map, same enemies, same loot.
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Since we've already seen everything, I'm going to say fuck it and just fire up some good old cheat codes and blow past everything that isn't a Servant.
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Let's just skip to the anomaly.
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The murder attempt fails, but the game gets mixed up and thinks Rin was the one who sent us here.
Music: Breach
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Ronnie makes an appearence, bringing her bloodstained Servant (who, by process of elimination, must be a Lancer) along for the ride.
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You know the drill by now.
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Music: Duel - Unauthorized Battle
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My cheating shows that Ronnie's Servant is running off the same plan as Arc, a normal turn followed by two turns of non-stop Skills.
Interestingly, Caster's using one of her low health lines here, despite being nearly full.
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Cursed Spear hits fairly hard, and has an added Curse chance.
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One more hit does it.
Music: Stops
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Oh god.
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As a small consolation, people fade away when they die in the SE.RA.PH, so she wouldn't be able to eat much.
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Music: Breach
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Seriously, can I please have Gatou back?
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In a reversal from Gatou and Arc, here the Servant is a religious zealot and the Master is the lunatic.
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I was going to make another remark on reused lines, but this one is slightly different! Caster called Gatou a freaky guy, but called Lancer a freaky old guy!
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Have you noticed it yet?
That sense of deja vu?
That's right, while the faces have changed, every single plot beat from the other side of week 4 is getting reused. Talk to the girl we saved in the infirmary, get pendant from the girl we didn't, enemy Master blocks off the Trigger on day 1.
That's why the Matrix levels were just given to us by Gatou, and why we had that random filler contest from Kotomine, as they can easily be done on both sides. Other than Rani/Rin teaming up with us, this entire week is filler that could be cut out entirely with no cost to the plot. The writers were trapped by both making a seven round tournament the core of the game, and having the player fight a single Servant of each class, forcing them to make two different opponents just to hit that quota.
Now, I could just walk away and come back tomorrow for the Trigger, but that would be boring.
Let's get them out of the way right here.
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Lancer's damage output is much, much lower than Arc's, dealing only 600 compared to her 1200 with their skills.
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So I can just brute force the first turn with a bunch of Curses.
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Rebellious Intent is a simple buff that boosts the damage on Lancer's Guards.
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Which pairs wonderfully with his Master's seal_break();. In a normal fight, his AI would tend towards using Guards with his buff up, and locking out Break means I can't punish it. This is doubly harsh on Caster, as it means I can't use Spirit Theft to keep my MP up.
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But it doesn't matter here, since I'm just setting him on fire six times.
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I have full health, I know he's going to spam skills, and my low MP means nothing thanks to Aphotic Cave's refund.
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Each Cave will knock Lancer's damage down to around 150 a hit, so I can tank five with no issues and heal up on the last action.
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These are some much nicer numbers.
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Ceremonial Purge is Lancer's other skill, ditching the Curse for increased damage.
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Damage varience means I end up almost dying.
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But the only important hit point is the last, so I'm able to heal up on schedule.
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Then I just do the same thing next turn.
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And done!
Music: Breach
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Surprisingly, the game actually acknowledges my win!
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Music: Fourth Chimeric Lunar Sea - First Floor
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With them gone, there's nothing stopping me from grabbing the Trigger on day 1!
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Granted, they would have left after today anyways, so I don't really save any time, but it is neat that the writers don't just play it as me losing and blocking off the path anyways.
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On the way out, I find something interesting.
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Namely, an enemy that uses a Skill holy fuck.
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300 damage, granted, but it is rather infuriating how it took around half the game for a normal mob to use one. Every single trash fight from the start of the game until now has been exactly the same on the enemy side, aside from ever larger numbers.
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Nothing else of import happened.
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Lancer shows up in the Matrix, as expected.
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Music: None
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Hakuno has her dream.
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Music: School I
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And Caster reminds us to follow up on the pendant.
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Rani's at her old spot on 3F.
Music: Duel of Fate
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Music: Stops
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Music: Fear
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Music: School I
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And now we go see Rin.
Music: School III
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Music: School I
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I sorta have, though.
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So I just pop in.
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Then leave after some quick cleanup.
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Next time: Amazing how fast this goes when you can skip all the gameplay.