Part 101: Bonus Video: DS Version Intro

DS Bonus Update: New Game+ 1

Hello, all my fine friends! Guess who's back? That's right: me!

Today, I'll be showing of the wonders of New Game+.


When we beat the game, we saved this little file right here. This is our completion data. What happens if we load that?


Hey, it's Dark Knight Cecil again!

This is why god, and good game developers, made a "skip cutscene" option.


Sadly there's no skip option for normal dialog. I'm just stuck mashing A.


Eventually, though, I'm finally given control again! Let's have a look.


First, our Inventory is... different. What's all that Onion stuff doing there? And I get to keep the Adamant Armor?! Somebody pinch me!

Note: If I had any leftover Soma Drops or Gold/Silver Apples, they would be in my Inventory as well.


Our unused Augments are also here, as well as that spare Pink Tail I picked up.


There's also this, which Edge swiped from the Final Boss. We have no idea what it does. Yet.


We also got this little beauty for beating the game. Equipping Limit Break allows a character to exceed the normal quad-9 damage limit!

The best candidates for this are probably Rydia and Kain, though Cecil can make good use of it too. Cecil has plenty of other amazing abilities to choose from, though, so I would favor tossing this one onto Kain or Rydia. Have an opinion on this? Let me know! Keep in mind we won't be seeing the results of it for a long time (if ever- I haven't decided how deep into NG+ I'm going yet).


Also, apparently Cecil can't read. It says right here it's a "flameburst" ring. What did you think was going to happen, bud?

Speaking of our boy Cecil, let's check him out.


He starts off, once again, as a level 10 Dark Knight. But, check out his abilities!


All Augments that you equipped on a character stay on that character in NG+!

For purposes of abilities, Dark Knight Cecil is the same as Paladin Cecil. This isn't always the case. More on that later.


Let's go with these abilities for now. Level Lust will give our levels a bit of a boost, and Treasure Hunter will net us more loot. More loot is always good!


I'll set Darkness to his Auto-Battle command, so I can still have access to it.


Now, unfortunately, Cecil cannot equip any of the Onion gear or the Adamant Armor. This is because the Onion stuff is restricted to your final five party members, and Dark Knight Cecil does not count. Anyone can equip the Adamant Armor, except DK Cecil. He just gets screwed over. I told you being in that armor is bad for him!


Anyway, let's loot the place and move on.


There's one place I didn't show off the first time through. Well, two places.


Welcome to Castle Baron's Dungeon.


Oh? Let's have a look, then.






There you have it. These three mages are here only at the very beginning of the game. Were they released, or executed? The game never tells you...


The other thing is the barracks.


I talked to the Red Wings before, but not at this point in the game.








As you can see, they're no more pleased than Cecil is at this recent turn of events.

Likely, the Red Wings that later attacked Damcyan were not these fellows.


Anyway, several cutscenes later, we're kicked outside.


We are joined, once again, by our best bro Kain.


And of course, he too still has all his Augments. I take a moment to get him properly equipped. (Cry goes in his Auto-Battle slot.)


This includes, of course, this stuff. Cecil may not be able to equip any of this yet, but Kain has no such restriction.


Even scaled to his level, the Onion stuff is as good shade better than what Kain has now.


So, he gets it. All of it.


Except, instead of this,


he'll equip this.


Hey, I've already beaten this game once. I see no reason to show it any mercy.


I do some shopping in Baron.


And sell off Kain's starting gear, so I can buy more Phoenix Downs and Tents.

Once outside...


We find some willing victims. Heh heh.

One thing to note, any enemy you scanned the first time through will remain scanned in NG+. You don't have to do it again. Fat Chocobo's Bestiary persists as well.


But that's not why we're here.


We're here to see Kung-fu Dark Knight in action!


Hey, keep in mind, we're only level 10 here!


Already, we can see the Treasure Hunter Augment working for us. Extra Phoenix Downs certainly can't hurt!


To the northwest,


I get somewhat less lucky.


Two Kicks can kill all these things, but Cecil got fully Petrified before he could fire the second one off.


That leaves it up to Kain to finish them off. He'll be fine.


Plus, his armor makes him immune to Petrification. Oh yes. This is going to be fun.


Clearly, the game is mocking me.

I trek back to Baron to heal up Cecil at the inn, rather than use a rare (for now) item on him.


And then, Kain and Cecil show off their tag-teaming prowess.




Yes, and yes. That'll do!


Level ups for our boys!

I'm not going to bother showing level up screens. We've seen them before.


Now, upon entering Mist Cave, we see another difference in NG+. First, -ingway isn't here. Second, the map is already complete!

Map completion carries over into NG+. Meaning less getting lost for me! There is one drawback to this, though: you don't get the prizes for map completion again, and they don't carry over into NG+. Aww, I like prizes...


Kick makes very short work of these trash mobs. It's great.


Bronze Hourglasses are always useful.


Cecil took a bit of a beating. I heal him up before tackling the boss.


Speaking of the boss, here he is!


Firstly, I switch on Auto-Battle briefly.




While Cecil Kicks the dragon in the face.

Every time he gets hit, he'll Kick the bastard in the face, hitting his elemental weakness in the process. Oh yes, I like this.


But let's ramp that damage up even more!


Like I said. No mercy!


That'll do it for buffs. Let's get this pain train rolling!


Yes!


Kain gets in the air to do what he does best.


Now, I haven't forgotten that this game hates me. Sensing incoming bullshit, I have Cecil Defend.


Bah. Just as I thought.


Whatever!




Look how little I care! (Especially Kain. Holy shit I love that armor!)


While waiting for the dragon to hold still and let me beat it to death, I feed Cecil a Potion,


while Kain tightens his Focus.


Twice.


Finally!


Get him, boys!


Fucks given:


zero!


Make that negative fucks! Ah hahahaha!

May I remind you this thing only has 556 HP? Overkill much? You betcha!


Level Lust is nice, hmm?


Sadly, I hate to do this, but it's time to Kain to leave the party. Damn it, Kain!

It was fun while it lasted...


Excuse me while I get my ass beat by a little girl.


Ass-beating complete, we head up to Kaipo.


I only run into one minor roadblock along the way. Kick + Counter takes care of these Goblins pretty damn quick, I gotta say.


Now, unfortunately,


when these chuckleheads attack you,


it does not trigger Counter. Son of a bitch!


That means,


no extra EXP for me.


Next, I keep the proud tradition alive. Notice he keeps his face between playthroughs.


After that, we get our murderess back.


And when I said anyone can equip the Adamant Armor, I mean anyone.

I'm going to enjoy this.


Child Rydia doesn't have access to all the commands that her adult counterpart did, like Fast Talker and Piercing Magic, but she does have Bluff. I put that in her Auto-Battle slot.


I put Draw Attacks back on Cecil, and keep Level Lust on for now. I'm going to level Rydia up a bit, like I did the first time. However... I guess it's not that necessary now, considering she has way more Defense than Cecil!


Seriously, just look at that Defense!


Oh, yeah, and I also picked up a thing. You can get pretty much every Augment in the game a second (or third) time. Notable exceptions being the ones you get from map completion or the Namingway sidequest, which you can only do once.

Quick note. Rydia's magic selections are unchanged,


except for her Summons. All the rare Summons we picked up carry over to NG+. The items that teach her these Summons also carry over. It's nice to have Summon options besides Chocobo and What.


Rydia's ascent to greatness begins, aided by Cecil's Level Lust Augment.




She can still kick plenty of ass herself!




Remember when Rydia could heal? I kind of wish she kept White Magic instead of Black. An extra White Mage would be great, and Summons cover her offensive needs just fine.

Oh well!


Yes, this is totally a responsible use of a Bomb.


Blowing up trash mobs. I defy you to disagree!


That'll do for now. Time to move on.


With the map already complete, I shouldn't get nearly as lost as I did the first time!


I'll stick Treasure Hunter back on Cecil. I think rare loot > more level ups, especially with the overpowered gear we have kicking around.




Rydia doesn't need any help.


Not even from Tellah!


Speaking of Tellah, he still has all his Augments too! That means I won't have to waste any more on him to get another Fast Talker!


I ran into a brief problem with reviving Cecil after he got whacked by a Tiny Mage.


I really miss Dualcast.


I ended up knocking out all of them but one to give me some breathing room.


Then I was able to heal Cecil before he got nailed again. That's better!


Tellah was even able to refill his MP.


And they dropped a Silver Armlet, to boot. Truly, a red banner day!


There, that will... kinda help his piddly defense.


Rydia's getting very close to just straight up being able to take over Tellah's job.


He still does more damage than her, but not by much! Thanks to the massive boost afforded to her by the Adamant Armor.




I'a I'a!


Ho hum.


We make it to the save point, where nothing interesting happens.


Tellah picks up a new toy, which he can use to tear the enemies apart.


Outside, I Tent up. The end is in sight!


And with that, Tellah is officially obsolete. Good thing, since he'll be leaving the party soon anyway!


It's boss time!


Octomammoth only has physical attacks. You know what that means!




Heh heh heh.

Draw Attacks/Counter alone would make short work of this fight.




But why stop there?


Yesssss.


Of course, between Darkness and constantly getting pummeled by the boss, Cecil's HP drops alarmingly quickly.


Uh oh.




Yeesh. I don't like the look of this! Hurry up and heal him, Tellah!


Who's up for some fried calamari?


I know I am!


Finally, after Tellah goes through his "the boss is weakened, blah blah" speech, he fires off a Cura.


I breathe a sigh of relief and resume beatings.


Not quite as impressive without the Bluff behind it, but not bad!


Tellah's isn't even that much better.


Anyway, our squiddy friend can't stand up to that kind of onslaught for long. Moving on!


Time to strip Tellah of his equipment. See you on Mount Hobs, bud.


Later, we pick up Eddie, loot the Damcyan dungeon,


and give him some Augments.


We got this one at the King's Bounty pub. I've been saving it


just for Eddie. I bet he feels special.


I can equip that in place of his useless Hide ability. Cecil will be taking most of the heat thanks to Draw Attacks. Plus, more money is always good!


And one good turn deserves another, I say!


Since I don't need to save this for Porom (she'll already have it), I can give it to Eddie.


And now when we find him (much later) in Troia, we'll get Salve and Hide, in addition to Bardsong. Yay?

And that is how we'll get Augments that we couldn't get before. As long as each temporary character has at least 2 Augments (Palom and Porom need 3 between the two of them), you'll get all their abilities when they leave the party permanently.


But I think that's far enough for today. More NG+ fun awaits, next time!

Don't forget to weigh on on who gets Limit Breaker (if you care at all)!