Part 19: Chapter the Nineteenth

Chapter the Nineteenth, in which the "I Win" button is used and Zoid finally becomes a winner.



Dad!!


Don't leave me!

....

Can't we do anything?


MAGI??

Zoid actually has a pretty good idea at this point.

Right! Let's do it! Hold on, Dad!

N... No.... D... don... t...

We can't tell what's gonna happen though...



This is probably the healthiest possible attitude to take toward portions of creation in physical form.

Do it!

... Fry. We believed and followed you. It's all yours.

Oh... Lela! Zoid! Bndr! Thank you..

... N... o....

I love the fact that the entire time Dad is trying to tell them not to do it and nobody's paying the least bit of attention to him.


home with you, Dad.. !

...

Now! Let's do it!



Oh, my. A Goddess.


What's happening?

Well... uh..

Oh! You don't have to tell me. I can read your mind. I see...


be alright now.

uh.. well..
Th.. Thank you.

Fry gets straight to the point and so does Isis. It's nice to have no messing around on either side in something like this. There's no real angst involved. "Hey, we've got a problem." "No you don't. I took care of it."


But it doesn't matter. I've got to do something about this shake! This might really ruin the world!



We are nothing like God. Not only are our powers limited, but sometimes we're driven to become the devil himself.

What?!

No way! Not from here! I have to go to the center of the world. It's hard for me all by myself .... You! Why don't you come with me! Let's see...I'm too big to move around...



Chibi-Isis is somehow adorable.







With our powers combined... Isis is the best NPC in the game, bar none. She's got max stats, the Masamune as a weapon, a powerful flare spell, is strong against everything, recovers HP, and has the Aegis as an option. Heart and Pegasus are nice options too. The scariest thing is that even with her, the rest of the game isn't a cakewalk.



Starting out we've got a series of escalators leading down to the center of the world.



Naturally we've got a whole new tier of monsters in the central shrine. It's time for an upgrade for Zoid!



At this point it doesn't really matter what Zoid turns into. At this point it's impossible to regress to a lower form of monster, so you can keep eating meat until you get what you want. Most monsters are this level still have a weakness, but are going to be useful no matter what.



As you get further into the true Final Dungeon the areas around the escalator become more like the beanstalk.



A few flights down there's a mysterious circle. This is one of two chances to encounter top tier monsters.



As a note, Tianlung or Tian Long (天龍) can be rendered as Heavenly, Celestial, Sky, or Holy/Divine Dragon and appears in various Chinese Legends. The name is related to the constellation Draco as well.



They're absolute monsters. Within 2 rounds they're quite capable of wiping our our entire group, with only Lela surviving the first round. It's actually a mercy when they only want to attack a single person, since they much prefer using their Tornado attack to hit the entire group. I actually played around with this for a bit, trying to get into fights around the area in order to get a more favorable RNG result.



In the end I finally decided to just use the Hyper Cannon to wipe them out. Luckily Fry was able to survive long enough to attack.



Zoid ascends to a new tier of monster. Once again, it's impossible for him to regress to anything lower now. I keep eating meat in order to find something that works.



You know you've gotten serious when the Nazis show up. I hate those guys. (No, really I do. I took a class on the Holocaust last year and had to play Wolfenstein 3D after the first week.)



After fighting Tianlung there's a split in the path. It's really insignificant, though, as the only difference is how many stops you make.



At the end the paths rejoin and there's another one of those circles.



I'm sure most of you are familiar with Fenrir, the monstrous wolf that ate Tyr's hand and that will be responsible for the death of Odin at Ragnarok. All I have to say is that is NOT a wolf. As you can see, he's every bit as dangerous as the Tianlung.



We can fix that, though.



Through the door we have a maze of crystalline pathways to navigate. This is the final level of this dungeon, complete with some new monsters.



It's probably significant that in the first group all of the creatures are iconically Japanese. Musashi are tough bastards with about 2000 HP. I like that they went with Black Belts and Paladins as the top tier units for their classes, although I do wonder if the giants in Giant's World are the same as these?



Off to the side we find this weird platform. It's inoperative now...



Isis has some helpful advice that I finally asked her for right before walking into the final battle. Let's see what we've got going in..




Fry's ready to let loose some ass-kicking, and Lela has a fresh Flare book and Heal Staff to use. I like the OWeapon she has, but it's not going to do much good. I ended up with a Lich as Zoid's final form, and it's actually a really useful form. That magic power and flare is going to be handy. Bndr...well, Bndr has been useful the entire time just as he is so I see no need to change him now.


Are you ready?




other one!

Heh. Hope you weren't depending on Isis too much. Still, it's pretty badass that she's going after one of these things on her own.


Let's go!





The final boss is, interestingly enough, a gigantic automated weapon system. This is also kind of a gimmick fight, and is actually pretty awesome.



In the first phase of the fight the Arsenal attacks with four cannons, hitting everyone.



The damage isn't hideous, but it's significant since it hits everyone.



Zoid's Flare is absolutely brutal. It's a great asset at this point.



I finally use one of the NukeBombs I've been toting around. The damage isn't terribly impressive, but the effect is cool.



Each Cannon has 1,000 HP and must be destroyed separately.



We don't quite get up to another 1,000 damage here, but I've heard that it's impossible to destroy more than 1 cannon per round. As a result, this phase lasts at least 4 turns.



A second cannon goes down after this barrage. These cannons have significant enough armor that the Laser is probably Bndr's best bet. I still continue to experiment, though.



If you don't destroy a Cannon each turn, every two turns it will rebuild one and you have to start over on it. This fight really needs a constant stream of damage.



The nice thing is that the damage is reduced with each cannon you remove.



Lela starts to take up healing duty, which is a necessary part of this fight since there's so many group attacks involved.



Zoid actually knocks out the final cannon with his flare. Hooray, Zoid has done something great!



The Arsenal responds by throwing its Smasher at Bndr. The Smasher can be used in one of two ways, with this way being generally the least damaging. Bndr's low defense hurts him, but it's still survivable.



Even XCalibr isn't too much use against Arsenal. It might be time for something more extreme.



Fry weathers the Smasher a good bit better than Bndr did...



The Tank might be sadly a bit outdated at this point. The Glass Sword, on the other hand, has been saved for just such a moment. No matter what you use it against, the Glass Sword will do about 1000 damage.



The Arsenal's second use of the Smasher is a wide area attack with a cool animation.



The attack is actually powerful enough to knock out Bndr after a couple uses, which is fairly impressive. Even Lela's Heal Staff and Bndr's Selfix couldn't keep up with it.



Luckily for Zoid, this enemy is vulnerable to all kinds of magic.



With a final push, Zoid wins the battle for us with a well placed Thunder. I cut a bit of the fight out, but trust me, you didn't miss much.



Can't blame Fry for being excited here. That was a pretty good fight.



Isis is a bit more understated.

What should we ....

I have to stay here and repair things. You go back to your world.

Oh, we will. Isis, who are you really?

This world we made will be old and needs to be repaired once in a long while. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm waiting as MAGI until somebody calls me from over a thousand years of sleep. Then... again I wait.

So you're like cosmic repair person?


Your descendants might awaken me.

Oh, yes. We will let our children know about you and



Nothing like a couple miracles and some ass kicking to convince you of someone's divinity no matter what they say.


working now. Take it back to your world!

Naturally the elevator was the formerly inoperable area we found earlier.



It connects to the top floor of the Celestial Palace.


stay here and wait for you... I didn't know that MAGI was such a thing...

It's kind of funny that this is the first time we've heard the name of Fry's mom. I wonder if this is a call back to Queen Jane from Final Fantasy?

I feel like I've seen more than everybody else.

Ha ha Your world isn't that small. I have to go and see it all!



Ahh, Dad, that charming rogue. He has to be reminded to go back home to his wife. With that... roll credits!



I like to think that Odin's restoration was part of repairing the world. It just wouldn't be the same without him.



We come back and visit Edo, where Taro and Hana have evidently set up pretty well for themselves.



Venus's city has had the walls torn down and been opened to the wilderness with nothing but flowers in the way. I predict waves of werewolves and claymen invading in the near future.



Evidently the "Look how pretty I am girl" is chasing Nils around now.



A few people mentioned that Mask was Lynn's father. This appears to prove it, although I have to wonder where he's been the entire time.



Finally we meet with Ki, who's escaped from her palace. Probably because all of her sycophants left.



And at last, homecoming. The circle is complete.


to leave now.

Again? What is it this time, Dad?

It's the Lost Ark, Fry!

At least they chose one of the good Indiana Jones movies to reference here. In the Japanese version he was going to search for the Three Imperial Treasures. Actually a pretty neat bit of localization, although I'd have suggested the Holy Grail myself.



Only this time, Fry's not having any of this "stay behind" crap.


and worrying! Take me with you!

Dear..!?

Neither is Jane. Took her long enough.



For old time's sake, everybody in the family leaves through the window.