Part 131: Tower of Doom

Welcome back!

Bit of a long update today, but it's mostly gameplay. So yay for that?



It's the first joke of the update, and already I know I can't keep on making it, but dammit, boy, the very first thing you saw of the tower was Milda wrecking the shit out of it!

: Ungh... argh...! OUCH! Ow, ow, ow, ow!

: Are you awake, Rapp?



Dammit, Justin, I will abandon this LP here and now if you tell Milda to not have a cow.



: You kidding me? It'll take more than that to....

: HEY! Is that who I THINK it is!? Lemme AT 'er!

: STOP it Rapp! It may be that she had the same reason for coming here as WE did!

: She was just mumbling about DESTROYING the Tower of Doom.

: Yeah, RIGHT! Outta my way! Unless you wanna get hurt too!

: Rapp! Cut it OUT!



This carries a little bit more weight when Justin is actually wearing armor, and wouldn't be one-shot by Rapp.

: Juss... you don't...!

: Ungh... oh....

Thankfully, Milda spares us from seeing how that fight would go.



: I TOLD you about stairs, remember? We're ADVENTURERS, not soldiers. We've come to WRECK this tower!

: Wreck it...!?

: Then... y'all got nothing to do with the folks here?

: Well my name is Milda, and I'm here for the same reason as you folks. But, then they found me.

: Brilliant deduction! Of course they found you, you draw too much ATTENTION!

: Y'all talkin' to ME...? Boy...?

: Yeah. You got a problem?

: What do you say we let those two fight it out, and see if we can melt the whole tower with enough Burnflames?

: Tempting, but no. That's twenty-four inventory slots we'd never get back.



: The more of us, the less the danger, and the easier it is to investigate, right?

: But... well, y'all got a point. I also gotta apologize about thinkin' you was in cahoots.



Yep. Rapp is more hot-headed than the character who's whole shtick is going into a blind, unstoppable berserker rage.

: Rapp!



: What?! What's your problem, huh?

: As I was sayin', it was all my mistake! So, here, Cafu boy... take yer best shot.

: ...! Naw... no thanks. Besides, I forgot about it already.

: Why Rapp....

: Hey Juss, we better get the lead out. Come on!

: Right on! OK everyone! Let's TRASH that tower!

And just like that, all the intra-party conflict got resolved, and we cured Rapp's racism.

I'm not even joking, there.



Anyway, this is really all you need to know about Milda. She hits things until they are no longer things, and then keeps hitting them, for good measure. Of her skills, we've seen Milda Kick and Milda Hit in the boss fight, which just leaves Splitter, which is her multitarget attack. It hits all enemies, and is more than capable of one-shotting the random encounters in this dungeon.

Yeah, it one-shots the whole blasted encounter.



Her axe is explosion-elemental and can cast BOOM! if used as an item. Her shield, bikini, and ring all boost attack.

Milda is the sort of character for whom "subtlety" is a weakly-flavored, loose-leaf, brewed drink.

Speaking of drinks, I promised a smoothie at the end of the last update, didn't I?



There's one fruit. It's totally a smoothie.

Anyway, before....



... and after.



Not that any of you are going to do the math, but if you did, you might notice a phantom point of Agility. That's due to the Seed of Running that you can get to after the fight, but that I forgot about before having Justin eat everything else.

Anyway, back in the main area...



You can go into the warehouse where we bumped into Milda for another Bond of Trust.

Now that we have four of them, we can start having some real fun with turn-passing shenanigans.



And one last thing, before we enter the tower proper. Rapp and Milda both got a chance to rest after they were beaten unconscious, so they get to be fully healed, while Justin and Feena are stuck how they were after the Milda fight.

.... which, looking at their MP and SP, seems to be after the original crack at the fight, instead of the one I showed last update. Whoops!



Okay, I lied about the "one last thing" bit. Once we recruit Milda, we're locked in the tower until we finish. Possibly due to a rare flash of "oh shit, that'll be so much more dialog we have to write now".

All right, let's actually go into the tower now.





In stark contrast to most dungeons in this game, the tower here is very linear.



We've got these bolted doors blocking access to areas until we locate the proper control panels.



And each and every encounter in the dungeon is this formation of three Elite Officers. Being a group of three in a tight formation, it's very easy to level up your magic against these guys.







Milda has absolutely no problem wrecking face around here.

These guys do have some tricks of their own: Heavy Blow and Wave Rip, like their predecessors, as well as a new trick.



A ranged AoE that causes significant amounts of stun. Also stings.

But in return...



... They can drop items that restore SP and MP to the whole party.

Yeah, this is a decent place to stock up on MP restorers, if you're into that sort of thing.



This action point hides the way forward.





J-Jesus, Milda!



Up on the second floor, we find this room. Stepping in the red areas sets off an alarm that summons soldiers.



Uh-oh.



I'm blaming Justin's survival entirely on the stat-boosters he chugged here.



Feena hits water 16 while dealing with the soldiers.

Feena's been wanting to hit water 16 since she first learned water magic.



Eventually, we happen across the first control panel.



Thankfully, OSHA had a say in the construction of the Tower of Doom, so not only are there guard rails on all elevated walkways, but the bolted doors failsafe to open when the control panel is smashed up.



These laser beams crossing a major pathway, though, are clearly a violation.



Justin hits earth 10 here.

In a normal game, Dragon Cut would practically be self-sustaining here. Combined with a Tree God amulet, and it dips below the 40 SP that two Ultra Drinks would restore.



Last time we had a temporary party member, the game made a plotline out of Justin growing to surpass him.

Here, it happens at the end of a random encounter, to no fanfare.



Tucked away in a forgotten corner, we find this gem. Hits harder than Milda's axe, and increases knockback distance.

: Say, Justin. That's a mighty fine hammer you got there.

: So why don't y'all just go ahead and let me give it a swing?

As this is one of the few times where a mace is Milda's best weapon, she holds onto it for now.



Up on the third floor, we've got this gimmick here. The buttons open side rooms, but lock off the way forward.

Of course, we'll be looting this place bare, so side rooms it is!



Like Lotus Cut, only slightly stronger and ice-elemental.



I guess, with Milda here, Rapp's no longer the slowest?



I... uh...

Sorry, can't think of anything witty for this one. Milda replaces her battle bikini for a skintight suit, mostly for the act boost.



Remember the joke I made at the beginning about the extra twenty-four inventory slots? Yeah, that's not quite enough for this dungeon.

Still, I guess "use it or lose it" is a decent way to get players to use consumable items.



I suppose I should show this off at some point.



Finally, he can spend his level 3 MP!



I don't know what it is with Feena, but she's always the worst about picking up any level 3 MP for me.



Which is an issue, as DragonZap here costs 6 more than her max. According to the description, DragonZap attacks all enemies with antipode Dragon Zap. It's a straight upgrade to Zap All, and I usually consider it the penultimate lightning spell, despite being learned at a higher level than the final one. For reasons that I'll go into once Justin learns it.



And that's that for this update. Next time....

Well, you'll see.

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