Part 18: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Floater
When we last left our pizza-eating heroes, they were outside the Earth Cave. Due to the difficulties these guys have with even random encounters, the strategy here is fairly similar to what happened with Loq. Get in, kill things, and get the hell out.
While we skip most of the treasure on the way through, the coral sword is an upgrade on the silver daggers Mike and Don are carrying around.
Some people mentioned that Astos can be very difficult at level 9-10. For reference, this is what we're working with right before the vampire.
The new swords we've been picking up show their worth against the vampire as he goes down in one turn. Before that, however, he still did more than 100 damage to Mike. Nothing really exciting happened on the trip out and quest for the Rod. On the way back down however...
Good lord that's a lot of spiders!
Here we are right before going after Lich. As you can see, I'm not grinding at all.
Lich is a bit of a problem. First off, you can see how much damage we're doing without getting a critical hit. He's also even nastier than Astos when it comes to multi-hit spells.
This outcome isn't impossible with even a few of his spells going through. You kind of have to hope that he wastes his time FASTing himself multiple times or doing something pointless.
With enough critical hits, it's still possible to beat him at this level. The turtles even managed to survive with all four members intact.
Next stop is Crescent Lake to get our canoe. While we're here, four bucklers are a pretty good investment. Bucklers can be equipped by red mages, fighters, and thieves, and have 0 weight and 2 armor. For fighters they're a substantial downgrade from normal shields, but they're about all you can get for red mages and thieves. I suppose it's worth explaining weight at this point. Almost all items have weight, which subtracts from the character's evasion rating. Essentially the equation is EVADE=48 + AGILITY - Armor Weight. One of the reasons that the steel armor is such a terrible thing to inflict on yourself is that it has a weight of 33 compared to the 10 of the fire or ice armor. Our goal for our front liners (Mike and Don) is to get them maximum protection with minimum weight. I'm less concerned about Leo and Don, since they're less likely to have attacks aimed at them.
I debated going straight to the Ice Cave rather than the Castle of Ordeals, but thinking about the multiple undead encounters in the Ice Cave swung the vote. Going through, the Nightmare was actually much less trouble than it was with Loq.
The Zombie Dragons, on the other hand, are unholy terrors. The Zeus Gauntlet helps out a lot.
Mikey does not survive the experience.
On to the ice cave! I don't believe I've actually shown the first floor, but it's pretty much a straight shot.
Some enemy groups in here are almost certain to slaughter this party no matter what. What's worse is that it is impossible to run away from Wizards. The only way out is through!
This never came up before, but the Sorcerer's TRANCE attack can hit everybody in a group. I'm sure you all can imagine the results of this battle.
In a surprising show of mercy, this was the fixed encounter after going down the pit in the Floater room.
Packs of mages are similarly fatal. I had to do a bit of odd working to deal with this group, as they were invariably getting a surprise attack. Since save states don't reset the data seed, I had to go a bit more exotic. Returning to the undead square essentially resets your next encounter. I couldn't avoid dealing with mages, but after a couple times through I managed to get a group of mages who weren't getting a surprise attack.
The EYE also presents a significant threat. Since the turtles don't have more than 300 HP, they're vulnerable to XXXX. I got lucky and it cast STOP on someone this time around, which didn't prevent its demise. After finishing that it was time to get the hell out of dodge.
Presenting, our new party of 4 ninjas! Of all the class changes, thief -> ninja is easily the greatest improvement. Ninjas can use almost any weapon and armor in the game, with only a few class specific exceptions. They also get access to low level black magic.
Just outside of Bahamut's Cave I ran into these little green guys. I'm inclined to think that they're a rare encounter, since I recall seeing them MAYBE once before.
In retrospect, that could be a good thing. They have one hell of a stone attack. Rewind, and let's go shopping.
The good news is that our access to these spells is unrestricted. Every single one is available to us, although only about 2-3 per level are anywhere near useful.
While in Elfland, I took a shot of this. Evidently Erdrick died young. Take that Dragon Warrior! (I say Dragon Warrior since I believe this was a reference to Link in the Japanese version.)
A level up sees our first spell charges. 15 is actually the earliest level you can get spell charges, and you get a new set every other level until maxing out at 4.
All those spells are expensive, so now is a good time to go loot the top floors of the Ocean Palace. There's thousands of gold available, as well as the Opal Bracelet. As this is in a three way tie with the flame and ice armor for the best defense for Ninjas while having far less weight, it goes to Mike.
Once we've got the funds, this is our spell list for all 4 characters. FAST is going to be particularly important.
Next step, the volcano!
You've seen most of this before, so I more or less skipped it. One important difference is that I actually kill this guy for the armor, as it provides great defense. He doesn't even manage to scratch us.
I'm afraid the boys manhandled Kary a bit, first by knocking her stupid...
Then paralyzing her...
And finally by casting FAST on themselves and stabbing her repeatedly until she dies. I'm afraid it was pretty messy.
Next time: What kind of Ninja game is this without some kind of training montage?