Part 15: "I got lost by the shipwreck ....! .... I missed you ..!!"

So last time, Liviathan ate us, and we met a new Dragoon friend named Edward who doesn't suck in battle. Also, Reila randomly died.





Or not, if you come back to Fin before taking on the Mysidia Tower.





Reila and Gordon aren't very talkative, though Hilda will respond to a couple of passwords.



I wonder what is MingWu doing ....

Let's ask her about the Dragoon in our party.

Are ...... Are you a Dragoon....?!
I am a Dragoon, Edward Highwind. When Empires attacked Dist, I left to Mysidia to get XTAL. I met Nathan on the way.

At least his last name's the same as the original, one that would be passed down to other lance users like FF4's Kain or FF7's Cid. Except in this game Dragoons are swordsmen, not lance-users. Also, we can bring up Dragon again.

We can call the Dragon from the Mirror Room in Castle Fin ......? It's just an egg though.

Again, that'll come up later.



As now we've got one long-ass dungeon to traverse. This one's gonna take up the entire update, in fact.







Welcome to the ten-floor Mysidia Tower, complete with its own music.



The first floor doesn't really have much new in the way of enemies. Werewolves have a decent bit of health, but are otherwise fodder.



Lots of old enemies. The Giants are pussycats at this stage of the game.



Hell, even the Big Horn boss from the Black Mask dungeon is a regular encounter here, and hilariously the Fly Ray hits much harder (though the Big Horns have a ton of HP to burn through).



As a joke, three of these chests have plain old wooden staves. Very fucking funny.



Last dungeon I picked up Psyc, which does an utterly fantastic job absorbing MP, even if the target doesn't have MP. Between that spell and Dude's Swap, MP is no longer an issue, so I'm free to spam Fire, Ice, Phys, and Fade to my heart's content. It really speeds up battle.



That said, this dungeon isn't completely safe.



Hilariously, the most dangerous enemy in this dungeon is Luna, at least when she's driven mad and stabs Dude to death. I only bring one Revive and am already forced to use it in the first damn floor.





First floor has one of the more valuable items in this dungeon. Great defense boost, small evasion penalty, no magic penalty, a hefty magic defense boost, resistance to certain elements, and a ten Will bonus? Yes, please!

As for the resistances, this game has eight elements, including the usual Fire, Ice, Lit, and Poison/Bane. However, the other four elements, Body, Death, Matter, and Mind, are more reserved for status effects and other indirect spells. Thus part of why there's so damn many instant death spells. The White Robe resists those latter four elements, which are arguably more important to resist.



Floor two has a fire theme to it.



All the weapons and armor for the next two floors are fire-themed.



Here's a shot of me swapping Dude's HP/MP with Nathan Fillion's. This also lets me get a nice bit of HP and MP boosts for the guys, which is always wonderful.



Floor 3 has lava. Lava takes off 1HP per step, which is minor, and prevents random encounters, which are tedious, so I'm fine taking advantage of it.



The only interesting new item is the Flame Sword, a nice upgrade from the Gaea Sword we got last dungeon.





LandMulbs can paralyze with hits and are otherwise simple. Basilisks are dangerous however, as Dude can't heal petrification worth a shit during battle.



So this dungeon has another gimmick where you occasionally have to fight a boss.







This is the Red Giant. He deals with fire magic. Yes, there are Ice and Bolt Giants coming up as well.



They all have high physical resistance, which makes Luna kinda lackluster here, though Edward can hang even without the Blood Sword.





This is the only spell I see any of the giants get off. Still, ouch.





Nathan Fillion and Dude shine here, of course, being the magical powerhouses that they are.



That said, Red Giant is by far the easiest of the trio, so don't let his patheticness here make you think the rest of the dungeon is a pushover.





Next two floors are ice, so look out for more ice crap!





Yeah, cut it kinda close on that one since, again, Hel2 sucks shit in battle when you have to heal something like stone.



You know what also sucks? Forgetting to rearrange rows so that my vulnerable healer is the only one that can get hit.



And since I don't have a Revive, I'm gonna have to leave and come back.



...After I get this chest.



Granted, I cut it pretty damn close. Fucking Edward coming in at the clutch.



You can barely see Edward's sprite grabbing an Ice spear, a nice upgrade for Luna.



Then a Soft, a Warp, and a bunch of healing and selling of useless junk later...



Let's try this again!



Oh yes, there's another horrible enemy called the Imp. They're pretty fragile, but they love casting Conf 16 on the party (and Ruse 8 on themselves), though it only ever hits Nathan Fillion and Luna. Not sure why Edward ignores it when a physical attack can inflict madness on him, but I'm not complaining.



Speaking of physical attacks inflicting madness, that's what this guy does! High HP, weak to fire.



Seriously, fuck madness.



Alright, back up to Floor 5. Ice water's same deal as the lava, for some reason.



GOD DAMMIT



Yes, two floors after giving you a new sword, the game gives you another, stronger sword. And this is after the new sword at the end of a two-floor dungeon! This game and its pacing.







Water Giant? Sure, why not.



More HP, but it didn't get off any ice magic before I killed it. Abused the Blood Sword a bit here, but ah well.





New floor...



...same crap.



Well, there is this interesting staff.





It has a tendency to randomly cast Bane 16.





It doesn't fucking care what it casts it on. Friend, foe, some random schmuck in another town. It just likes spamming Bane. I'll stick with the Mage Staff for now (at least until I remember to replace it with another Quake item).



Next floor has more lame items. Hermes Sandals, cast Fast.







Black Giant? Sure, why not.



Luna can't even scratch this guy.





It's Edward and Dude saving the day here, as Nathan Fillion can't really exploit weaknesses here, and Phys is only L4 at this point.



Also, these guys can hurt. This is just one hit.



This guy's pretty damn tough if you don't have powerful magic and the Blood Sword. But I do, so it's no biggie.



Woo! 10% chance to drop this baby. Similar to the White Robe, except it resists the four attack elements and boosts Intelligence by 10 instead. Hilariously, there's one two floors up anyway, but maybe I'll find a use for it. Probably not, sadly.





Almost done! Bunch of pathways, with the one to the next floor to our right. The chest?





The Nuke tome, which has double the power of our elemental spells and is stronger even than Fade. Of course, the issue is leveling the damn thing this late in the game.





Better get to work, then!



Hourglass. It's just an Hourglass. Stop, and all that.







This chest, where you normally get the Black Robe, guards a White Dragon, complete with legit boss music.



As usual, Luna's offense sucks against these big guys.



For each "hit" Powr gets, it adds either a fourth or all of the caster's intelligence to the target's attack, not really sure which.



Either way, it adds up.



Overall, what should've probably been a scary fight, wasn't.



Oh! Only a 5% chance for these babies! This is end-game stuff right here! You probably know these better as the Genji Gloves.

These give the highest physical defense in the game for gloves, at 45. For reference, the second-highest, Diamond, only give 25. They also give Mind resistance, handy for all those horrible Charm spells that make Luna constantly murder her friends. The downside is the utterly ridiculous evasion penalty they give, making Luna's evasion sink to where they really aren't worth using on her. However, since Edward only has two levels of evasion anyway, he might as well take advantage of them! You know, at least until Luna's so awesomely evasive that she can use them without taking as much of a hit.





That's it for items and the dungeon. Just one more game of the favorite "Pick the door that doesn't ram tough encounters down your throat!" and...



It's MingWu!



If well done, it should open ...... .... Now .... Step back!!





.. I need to rest .. Go.. ahead of that door.. .. .. ..







And so MingWu nobly sacrificed himself by zapping a door until he randomly died. I think the game kinda stops giving a crap about having characters die with grace at this point and just starts piling it on.

Also, since it's been a surprisingly long while since I've busted it out,

DEATH COUNT: 24



The final room has five orbs. First, the surrounding four...



Each of these boost a stat by ten, the catch being it does this for a random character. The four stats are Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Will. Not sure who got which at this point, but maybe I'll figure that out in the status summary.





Finally, we get the XTAL spell, the strongest spell in the game. You know, if you ignore the fact that it sucks and doesn't really get any stronger even if you level it. I still give it to Dude since it's cheap damage and all, but I'll be sticking with Fade for offensive power.



Anyway, we're warped back out, just in time for our next catastrophe! Get ready for that Death Count to skyrocket, baby!



STR +8, AGI +2, VIT +2, INT +2, WILL +13, MAG +6, HP +221, MP +134, Fire +1, Phys +2, Powr +1, Psyc +2

Looks like Nathan Fillion got the +10 Strength and Will boosts, hilariously enough. Otherwise, Nathan Fillion got a huge chunk of MP thanks to swapping back and forth with Dude. Wish his Int went up a bit more, but overall he's doing alright.



STR +5, AGI +7, VIT +6, INT +8, HP +230

And of course Luna gets the Intelligence boost for the whopping one spell she never even uses anymore. That agility is fucking beautiful, though.



STR +1, AGI +10, VIT +6, WILL +12, MAG +1, HP +447, MP +20, Cure +1, Hel2 +2, Swap +1, Fade +1

...And of course Dude gets the fucking agility boost. His evasion has literally doubled as a result! Otherwise, his will is monstrous now, and that combined with Fade makes him tear things apart with Fade.



STR +4, AGI +5, VIT +3, HP +244, Shield +2

Edward didn't nab any of my boosts, which is good because he's also temporary, even if they all went to the wrong people. Oh well, Edward's still awesome and arguably better than the dead MingWu as a fourth. At least he's sticking around for another couple dungeons!