Part 20: Four Funerals and a Wedding (Part 2)

Happy Valentine's Day, thread! Here's an update that puts the "romance" in Romancing SaGa!











Wha...

Roy?

Did anyone see that just now?

What? Oh, yeah. That was Leon.

Oh, okay.







ow





yay





boo








thud





Oh man I am totally installing that!

Do you even know what it does?

Not a clue!




We get a Grenade drop off the MechBug! It's a step up in crowd control, so we uninstall Roy's laser sword and replace it with some heavy ordinance.

Overall, the volcano's fights really aren't that tough. If anything, it's a bit easier than the sewers since there's a lot of monsters in here that are weak against ice. Also, there's less magic-heavy foes (like O-Bakes), which means Roy and Heather are much more effective tanks.







Oh, hey! There's Leon again!

Seriously, why doesn't he just say hi or something?

Look, there's probably not a lot to do out here. Let him have his fun.













sigh







What I want to know is, how is he getting through the lava? Dude's got like a speedo and a knife.

What I want to know is, how are we getting through the lava?

Uh, we're walking? Duh.










We're going to get that, aren't we. We're going to go against all common sense and wade into molten lava specifically to open a box which may or may not kill us anyway.

Dibs!

Dib—aw.











Well, at least it was worth it.

What do those things taste like, anyway?

Blue!

Blue is a flavor?

Sure?







Leon? You know we can see you, right?

NO YOU CAN'T















The mage staff is an equippable Flame attack that uses mana as its base. We've got two mutants with fire abilities already, so we'll add it to our stash. It'll probably stay in storage until Heather absolutely must have mana raised or Sara has all her attack magic fall off the table.

The flamethrower (Fire Gun) is technically a step up from Roy's SMG, but it's not nearly as awesome as you'd expect. It supposedly does somewhere around 250 damage, but I've never seen Roy hit for more 100. I'm pretty sure it's fixed output and not mana as a base stat, so I have no idea what's going on. It might be resisted with mana, which would explain some things. Still, it gives Roy access to an elemental attack, and who doesn't want grenades and a flamethrower for their robot?













Maybe this'll protect me from the lava!





Well?

Nope.



The Fire shield, on the other hand, is a fantastic pickup. We give it to Roy, and his defense bumps up to the 40-50 range. It also has a neat trick that we'll get to in a bit, although it's of dubious helpfulness at the moment.







Oh thank saw.

Yeah. That was pretty bad.

And what's with Leon following us the whole time? I have no idea what was up with that.














Hi again, Leon!





He's... he's not that stupid. Right? He can't be.

Hey, it's what I would've done.

Which means he is that stupid, and we need to get back to the city right now.
















Alright. If we're going to take on Venus in her own city, we're gonna need to gear up.

Let's make it quick. Leon's heading for Venus, and we need to get there first.








Welcome to Cupid's Mall, customer. What is your request? Bzzt.





Oof. Those are some steep prices.

Yeah, but we've got Heather on our side.

*rattle*

How much will give us for this junk?

Whrr. Sample data indicates chance of selling is low. Beep.

Did you know gold swords are actually made of a special hardened alloy? With the right technique, you can totally cut through steel. It's like a knife through butter!

...

Let's try this again. How much will you give us?

Recalculations indicate previous error.

Better.




To pad our bank account, we dump some old gear like Roy's SMG and Heather's axe. As much as I like Heather being an axe-wielding berzerker, the Gold sword is only a tier or two back from what's in stores right now, and it shows. We grab some Army armor for Sara since she's got the worst defense out of everyone. It doesn't convey any special properties, but an extra 3 points of defense is always nice. We also pick up a new Laser sword and a load of X-Potions. We don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money here, because the volcano has some stupidly good gear. But, hey, you can't take it with you.




Alright. If Venus is anything like the other Aeons, she's gonna have magi out the wazoo. We'll have to catch her by surprise.

It just might work. I don't think she knows we found all that magi.





Crap! A guard!

Just act natural!





WHAT NO WE CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN

That's... actually pretty natural for us. So good job, I guess.







We're at the halfway point, so before we get on with the boss fight, let's take a look how our guys are coming along. You've already seen Heather's stats last update, so we'll take a look at everyone else.





Roy is about halfway towards max in both defense and HP. He's also stuffed chock full of guns, explosives, and the curiously inert Revenge sword. Decent strength and no real agility to speak of, but he doesn't need to get the drop on anybody, and all his weapons are either fixed-damage or counterattacks. We may change it up later, but for now, there's no compelling reason to flatten and reinstall.





Zero's stats are a bit flat. As previously discussed, it's hard to get mutants to level up. Still, you get a lot of bang for your buck with Mana, and 26 isn't anything to sneeze at. He also has access to all three elemental attacks, and that increases the chance he'll be able to double up his damage. 22 Agility is enough to do 300-400 with a gold bow, so we have a backup plan against magic-immune monsters. His defense isn't too bad, either. Keep in mind Roy's staggering 44 defense is not exactly the norm.





I have no idea what's going on with Sara. She's all over the place theme-wise and seemingly won't be steered towards any one particular loadout. Nevertheless, she's filling two odd but necessary roles: gadget mage and secondary damage dealer. With 29 agility and her laser sword, she can keep up with Heather as far as churning out the damage. I have no idea how this happened, because it certainly wasn't something I was trying to do.










Oooohohoho! Just in time, children! The...





...will be held in a moment. Please stay and attend! I'll even give you seats in the front row.

We are not going to—

...refuse! Again, that's totally generous. I'm not surprised at all.

_{Heather. What are you doing.}

Why, thank you! Hmm. You know, there's a strapping young lad currently looking for a dinner date. Are you interested in meeting him?

Omigod! I'd love to!

...
















Woah. That's creepy.

Omigod they're such a happy couple~

How? How can you be okay with this?





Oh...

Do it, Flora. Do it.











Leon!








Drama! Excitement! Intrigue! Click here for music!











...magi!

Ohohoho. How amusing! Really, what are...





I kind of agree with her on this one.

Yeah... not really sure what his end game is here.

I think it's a pretty solid plan!

You would.








Flora. You are going to marry Niles regardless. I will not have my beautiful city's gene pool polluted by some limping, sweaty caveman. Now...





No! Leon and I are leaving together!

This is compelling drama.

Pass that over when you have a chance.





I... I... Why can't I? Why can't I do it?

Did you think I was stupid, girl? It's been conditioned in you since birth. You won't be able to do a single thing that isn't within my rules.

Your rules...?





Flora!

There. I'm no longer beautiful. You have to exile me! If you don't, I'll do it for you!

Why... you little insect! Do you how far I'd planned out your bloodline? You've forever compromised my grand vision...





Enough!





Oh, the mutant speaks for all of you now? You're lucky your friend is of purer stock than you, girl, or I'd reduce you to ash here and now.

We're gonna punch her in the face, right?

Absolutely. You okay, Leon?

Ugh... f-fine...





I get the feeling it's in better hands with you, anyway.

Thanks. Flora?

I have Leon now! That's all I care about!





But... All this time, I've never asked...





Me?

I'm Roy Butte, Jr.

And I'm gonna save everyone.




It's easy to miss the power magi here, and with a boss fight upcoming, every little bit helps. Intriguingly, this is a long cutscene that doesn't even involve your guys until Venus causes one of them to flip out. It's kind of neat how the supporting cast has a life that's not defined solely by how long your party sticks around.

Meanwhile: Nils? Your thoughts on the matter?












Alright, Venus. Let's rumble!

You insolant cretins. I told Ashura to go out and finish the job once he poisoned Ki, but no. He just had to wait for you so he could deliver one of his stupid, pompus speeches.

Wha—you were in cahoots with Ashura this whole time?!

Are you surprised? We gods must stick together to keep lesser lifeforms in their place. Especially the bald, half-blind ones.

...

Oh well, I suppose it won't be an issue anymore. I'm going to remove you from my city of beauty—permanently.

Your city of...





Wha—How dare you—

Shut up. Just shut up. You're a fascist and a dictator and a friggin' eugenicist. You are the worst person by every possible measure. For the love of saw, I am begging you. Shut. Up.

Make me, child.









I think we can arrange that!








Boss music! This is seriously proclick








Venus is the second of the New Gods and the next major hurdle to clear. If you've been keeping up against her world's monsters, you can probably make it to the other side of this fight without any issues. That doesn't mean she's a pushover, though.




Lemme go first. I've been looking forward to this a long time!

Oooh, Zero. I had no idea you could take command like that~

?

Confidence is so sexy in a man. I can't believe I didn't see that in you before.

...





Zero! Don't listen to her, she's manipulating you!





Wha? No, I'm legitimately confused. Like, why would she even think that would work?





Guys! Try to stay on task here!




Like all major bosses in SaGa, Venus has O-Damage. That means any hits your guys land are going to be cut in half right out of the gate. (And that's after her defense is applied, which is, of course, respectably high.) As you probably guessed before the fight even started, she has Charm. She also has Sleep.







Call him ugly again! I dare you!

S-Sara?

Hmm. I see I was mistaken. He wasn't the ugly one.

Really?

No. All of you are.










Ooooooooooohohohohoho




She also has Flame. And holy moly, does it hurt.

Flame is the real danger here. Venus also has a Blitz whip that does a ton of damage and, like any other whip, can paralyze for a turn. But, it's single-target, and between that and her Charm and Sleep attacks, you should be able to win the damage race... unless she starts spamming Flame. If that happens, you're gonna die. Two flame attacks in a row from someone with 50+ mana is a party wipe no matter how you prepare. Even if you have fire magi equipped, that person is going to get pasted next turn by her whip. The chances of two Flame attacks in a row are, merifcully, rare—but if it does happen, you're going to be paying Odin a visit.

Fun (well, "fun") trivia: I'm not showing it off here, but you know that Flame shield Roy picked up? When you activate it, it puts a barrier up for the entire party for the rest of the fight. That's great, right? Really useful here! Yeah. One problem with that: In FFL2, elemental gear is reversed from what you'd expect. A Flame shield puts up O-Ice. Not real helpful right now.










Ugh! You care so much for the hairless one? Fine, I'll just take care of that.








Zero!




Every now and then, she'll bust out Erase. Erase is just a straight insta-death ability; it either kills you or it doesn't. Those of you who played FFL1 may remember that O-Para not only protects against being paralyzed but also instadeath. This means Roy, with his natural and unchanging O-Para/Poi ability, is immune to instadeath! It's a neat touch that makes complete sense. Unfortunately, it doesn't really help poor Zero. It's even more unfortunate because instadeath is as unreliable for bosses as it is for your party. Dude just has the worst luck, I swear.










Nngh!





GLRP

Oh no! Hold on, Roy, I'll cure you!

You two think can defeat me? Me, the source of all beauty? Me, the sole arbiter of love? You have nothing that can harm me! There is no miracle coming to save you! I will kill you all!

SYKE, BITCH

!





Not so pretty now, are you?!




Remember how I said Heather was going to cause headaches for bosses? The reason she's largely been ignored in fights is because random mobs are almost always about sheer numbers. Roy, Zero, and Sara are geared towards group attacks, but Heather is our one-on-one girl, and she just kind of plinks away at the edges of the crowd.

Boss fights, though? There's only one target in front of her. And gods help whoever it is.

With her fire sword, 55+ strength, and power magi, Heather throws down bombs of 550 damage against Venus. Venus isn't even particularly weak against fire, and she has O-Damage. Heather does not care. She is doing so much damage that Venus' O-Damage ability can't keep up with it. And, for comparison purposes, I'd like to point out that Venus only has 2000-2500 HP or so.

Yeah.

Honestly, our entire party's damage output is kind of frightening. With Heather and Sara shouldering the load, we can easily shell out 1000 a round against bosses without breaking a sweat—which means we can drop most of them in 3-4 turns. This is very, very helpful. As I've said many times before, SaGa boss fights are damage races. If they're going to hit the entire party for 225, we need to hit them back for 550. Imagine I said that in Sean Connery's voice, because it's much more awesome that way.



















Jeez. No wonder she was such a pain in the ass.





Everyone okay?

Yes, thanks to you.

How about you, Zero?

_{Did someone get the number of the wagon that hit me}

Ehn, I've seen him worse. He'll be fine.

Sorry about the act earlier. I needed her to think I was on her side.

You did a pretty convincing job, too. I'm sorry we doubted you, Heather. We should've known better.

No way, I was being a total reekazoid. Odin was right. I've still got a lot to learn.







I doubt it helps, but... I want you both of you to know that I really do love her. I would've done everything in my power to make her happy.

It's okay, Nils. It all worked out in the end.

But Flora's face...

It's alright!





...the day I found out the most valuable thing in my life!

'Sides, scars are sexy.

Totally.

Oh! By the way...





Really?!





Let's talk outside. We'll get you hooked up as long as you promise to double-date!

It's a deal!








Feels great to make a difference!

Ugh.

How's the ribs?

Feels like somebody took them out and barbecued them. I'll live, though.

I'm glad the city's finally rid of Venus. Without her around, people'll be free to fall in love with whoever they want. No more messing around with people's hearts!

Well put. Alright, guys, that wraps things up here. Wanna see what the Nexus has next?

Yeah! Let's... ah... AAAAAAH... CHOO

*BAMF*











...

Like, gesundheit.

_Thanks




Next Time: Saddle Up