Part 7: Operation Tiger

Update 6: Operation Tiger

Before we go after Byak-Ko, there's something to look at here.



This is Aika's damage with a saber and the stats you see on the right. It's an old weapon from back in the second world, but the damage is still pretty respectable. She certainly killed that P-Worm. However...



Those Agility potions plus those stats ends up with this damage. Now, how can that be? The simple answer is that 99 is not the maximum a human reach in a stat, it's only the highest number the game can display. The actual maximum is 255. As long as you keep using strength and agility potions, your stats will continue to get higher. There's no way to see this, but through observation of damage you can directly see an impact. Mutants, on the other hand, will never naturally go above 99 in a stat. Stat increasing equipment, however, can still boost them over 99. We're going to milk this for all it's worth.



Anyway, on to the palace. That's a lot of guards...it's going to be awkward getting around without fighting all of these guys...



Or not. Wow, they're actually quite polite and helpful.



The interior of the palace is a mess of doors and stairways. It's tedious, but not confusing.



That's nice. That was probably what was in that chest behind him when he interviewed us to join his guard.



Inside the doors is a weird mass of platforms connected by doors. The architecture of this place is a bizarre fusion of Escher and Frank Lloyd Wright. I took this picture to note the way the guard is sitting on top of the door. NPCs are coded so that they can walk in places the player can't, and don't trigger things like exit squares. It's quite annoying when NPCs in towns walk outside the borders.



Wow, we didn't even mention Mileille and he told us where she...oh bugger.



Well, here's that key the guard was talking about. It's practically useless, but here it is.



Mileille (how would you even pronounce that?) is being menaced by some lowlifes who are gone so quickly they're not worth screen shotting.



We rush forward now that we've rescued her and...



Byak-Ko appears praising her for playing her part so well. It's a trap!



Rather than trying to kill us or something when we've just been fighting his goons and are presumably weakened, Byak-Ko instead tosses us into a jail cell and buggers off to go after Jeanne. He's a pretty sad failure at villainy.



Talking to the other prisoners gains us the valuable intelligence that they can't bend the bars and that there's a glider on the first floor. One of those things isn't a problem for us.



Around the corner are a ton of guards, but defeating one sends them scattering. We get the Jailkey as a reward, and the natural thought is to go through the door behind us.



Instead, however, backtracking a bit takes us to a locked door that's full of loot.



The Giant's Glove is probably the best item, but there's plenty of loot including a revive, x-potions, elixirs, and a Death spellbook.



Shortly afterward we can escape with the glider on the right. I don't know why the other two are broken, since it wouldn't seem to matter either way. Time to go after Byak-Ko!




Our stats are a bit misleading now. At this point Aika and Vyse actually have about 130 points in their primary statistic.



Logically enough, Byak-Ko's palace can be found at the Rebel Hideout. There's nobody in the hideout, so he must already have Jeanne inside?



If you're dumb (like I was since I haven't played this in a bit) you'll climb all the way up the palace, find nothing, and walk all the way back to the bottom to find that the palace has moved while you're inside. Probably could have just walked in and walked out and gotten the same effect.



Talky meat. I've known all along, you've walked into my trap, and I have the white sphere so I don't need either of you. He attacks Mileille, but Jeanne takes one for her sister proving herself to be the truly good and noble sister.

That tears it.

Byak-Ko

Known as the White Tiger of the West, Byak-Ko represents Autumn and the West. In Chinese Folklore, when a tiger reached the age of 500 years its tail would turn white. The appearance of a pure white tiger signified peace throughout the world or an emperor who ruled according to Virtue.




So underneath that cloak he was hiding the fact that he's a six legged-freak? Wow, that's kind of unsettling. It's like a cat centaur. At any rate, you can see right away the difference between 99 in a stat and around 130 now. Unfortunately, Fina is becoming a bit more obsolete with every potion at this point. She used to be the team muscle, but now she and Cupi are acting as our group kill team, usually teaming up to attack groups with 3 or more enemies. Anyway...







In one last asshole move, Byak-Ko takes the White Sphere out with him. You mean we're stuck here?



Until Mileille cries a tear over the mysteriously masculine appearing corpse of her sister and creates a new White Sphere.



We end up in front of the first town with the glider.

Next time: Climbing the tower and visiting the aftermath of Akira. Or something.