Part 10: This is my way of thanking you

He doesn't seem like the brightest of people... One of those "all talk, no show" types...

Yeah? What would a harlot like you know? You go prancing around the countryside in an outfit like THAT? Now THAT'S not too bright.

EXCUSE ME? Listen here, you aging excuse for a woman, I got MUCH more to offer than your haggard self EVER could!

Oh, girlie, are you mad? You may THINK you're hot with all that exposed flesh, but you're nothing more than a brainless hussy!

Let's knock on your head and see... [knock][knock] Ooh, did you hear the echo? It's empty!

That's IT! Look here you sorry excuse for a woman, now I'm REALLY going to show you the power I hold!

Millenia, cut it out! As fun as this might be to watch, this is not the place, nor the time.

so rude



Millenia's pretty great. She's got a really high Magic stat and comes equipped with the Chaos Egg, a really good offense-focused mana egg. It comes with Burn! (single target fire damage), Zap! (AoE lightning damage), Snooze and Stram (-ATK).

Since Elena isn't in the party right now, we have access to her mana egg as well, which I equip on Ryudo.











This is the cave full of monsters everyone was talking about. The camera pans around it for a while before showing us some stalactites on the ceiling, which conveniently fall to form a little path leading forwards.



Following said path leads us to this stupid thing. This is Carro, who I can only assume was supposed to be some kind of mascot for the game. What does it do? Well, you see, if you feed it Poff Nuts like the one we got back in Carbo, it'll jump onto Ryudo and act as a light source for the duration of the dungeon.

The dungeon isn't even dark. I don't get it. I refuse to interact with it out of sheer spite.





Jumping down from a ledge after the Carro room leads us to a large boulder - rolling it into the cave wall breaks it apart, allowing access to the main part of the dungeon. It also spawns some Crag Snakes to fight, and since I've been stockpiling SC since the start of the game, this is the perfect opportunity to show off some special moves.

VIDEO: Ryudo's Moves

Tenseiken Slash (24 SP) - Save for one character, everyone's first special move is single target, Cancels and becomes really really fast with upgrades.
Flying Tenseiken (40 SP) - Decent damage on one enemy, also reduces their DEF by 3.
Purple Lightning (50 SP) - This skill was the most significantly changed by the hard hack, as it used to be a lot weaker, while costing 32 SP. It does quite a bit of damage now, but I still have better things to spend my SC on.

VIDEO: Millenia's Moves

Arrow Shot (25 SP) - Standard first special move, functionally the same as Tenseiken Slash.
Heel Crush (50 SP) - A strong debuff move, it reduces ATK, DEF and ACT by 1 on one enemy while doing some damage. It used to be cheaper and reduce MOV instead, but the hard hack removes pretty much all -MOV from the player's hands for whatever reason.
Fallen Wings (75 SP) - Huge damage to all enemies.

In addition to the Zap! bug from fighting her in Carbo, Millenia is responsible for another massive bug in the PC version. Fallen Wings, like a lot of special moves and spells, actually plays a video file as part of its animation, and in the PC version this video file contains something like 20 seconds of redundant frames at the end. What this means is that without editing the game files, you have to wait that long every time you use it before the battle will continue. To fix it, you have to either edit the video files yourself or get fixed versions off the internet. There's at least four or five other video files that have this problem. Bug Count: 11

EDIT: I've traveled back in time to deliver a warning: don't use this archive's version of m14.avi unless you want to risk your game crashing every time something uses the spell Poizn.

Back to Fallen Wings, the animation is mistimed and the video transparency is screwed up, so it gets two more strikes. Bug Count: 13



The main room of this part of the dungeon contains two sluice gates with floating bridges next to them. A switch in the middle of the room toggles which of them is up and which is down, in practice making it so only one of the two bridges can be used at any given time. To the northeast of this one is a room that traps you in with snakes when you go into it.



This fight is actually pretty scary - there's a decent chance that the entire party will get paralyzed and melted to death if you just mash regular attacks into them. Snooze is your friend here, as it will be for quite a while. Incidentally, there's actually different battle music when you get surprised, which you can listen to here:





This is what tends to happen if you let the snakes surprise you. Also, the run away message has a small printing error in it. Bug Count: 14

We can't actually make any progress through the snake room yet - instead we have to use the lever in the center of the cavern.



Doing so lowers the left bridge and raises the right one, allowing access into the area at the top of the screen here. Following that path leads us to this rock:



Pushing it creates a path back into the snake room. What this means is that we can now get back here without having the right bridge up. Thus, the solution to this little puzzle is to backtrack to the lever, switch the two bridges, take the long way around through the snake room and finally go over the left bridge. Following this path leads to another trap room, this one full of frogs:



Frost Frog
Difficulty:

HP: 950 (from 400)
Attack: ~110
Special: -1 on hit
Weak to , Strong against
Concept Art: Here.

Their fire weakness means 950 HP isn't as much as it seems with Millenia around. ACT debuffs are pretty rude, though, and they show up in bigger packs later, so they're nothing to sneeze at.

Also around here, Millenia gets real angry.



Specifically, she has a Rage meter, shown as a spinning graphic around her portrait. After taking enough damage in battle, she goes berserk, getting a huge speed buff and full SP restore in exchange for taking control away from the player.



She will then use, for the most part, her strongest abilities for a few turns before calming down. She also gets access to a really annoying move called Taint of Wind, which knocks everyone (friend or foe) away from her, doing 0 damage. That said, a free Fallen Wings can be a big help in boss fights.

Beating the frogs allows access to a room with another stupid Poff Nut and a Sleep Charm, as well as the path to the second part of the dungeon.





Say, is that the monster over there?

Noooo... he's the one we rescue!


Troglodyte
Difficulty:

HP: 1600 (from 980)
Attack: ~140
Abilities: Sleep Spawn
Concept Art: Here.

These guys are sort of a midboss for the dungeon, having a lot more health and damage than anything else before them. Putting you to sleep is pretty mean too. That said, they're really slow and vulnerable to Sleep themselves, which allows you to pick them off one by one.

Beating them earns us the Mist Egg and a cutscene.



You're making me regret it already. You shouldn't be here, kid. Go home.

What about YOU two? What are you doing!?

We're ridding the land of pests.

Really?! Then please take me along too!!



I will not go... I am not playing around!! I cannot lose that medal. It is the last thing my late mother left to me...

Well, when you run into her, tell her that she should have left you some common sense instead.

It's precious! I cannot lose it... NO MATTER WHAT!

Roan starts punching Ryudo ineffectually.

I will absolutely, positively... get it back...



My name is Millenia. What's yours?

I am Roan... Th- thank you very much, Miss Millenia.

Hey, hey. I don't want any part of this. There's a rough road ahead. He'll only be a burden on you.

I'm sooo happy! Ryudo, are you really worried about me? You are a good man, after all.



Yes! I shall not give you any trouble!

"Weak and frail"? Uh-huh. Just don't forget to feed him and change his litter twice a day.

Hey! Turn off the waterworks, kid. There IS a tooth fairy, all right?

So, you'll take me along!?

For now. But, if you slow us down or just piss me off, your butt will be skipping down Lollipop Lane on its own.

Understood!


Next time, we'll be finishing this dungeon and learning things about Millenia that everyone has probably already figured out.

Official Art: Roan, as well as some borderline early concept art for Millenia