Part 163: The Grandeur 2

Let's not forget that one of the first things Feena did after getting off the Steamer was getting kidnapped by a clown. A clown who later became a trophy husband for his golddigger receptionist after his kung-fu bodyguard quit to become a chef.

.... Honestly, I think I'd prefer the game more if Disc 2 forgot about the whole JRPG thing.

----

Welcome back!





There's a lot to be said about this fight, so let's dive right on in.



Let's start with Saki. Her spell list is built around damage, whether direct in the case of BOOM!, or by giving her other attacks more of a punch with WOW! or Speedy. Stat-wise, she's got strength and wit in spades, and is, by far, the fastest of the three. The most agile, too, but that doesn't matter too much.



On the skill side, Max Lariat is just an upgrade of Power Lariat from earlier. It weighs in at a hefty 130 power, plus her not-inconsiderable strength. Thankfully, it has no special effect going for it.



Slapstick Home Run is a bit weaker, at 100 power, and also stuns victim and knocks them back. Both of these are physical attacks, so Diggin' can help reduce the pain.



Next up, Nana. Being the middle one, she's less focused on raw damage than Saki, but also less about debuffs and annoyance than Mio. As such, she gets the annoying status effects and the wide-angle AoE damage. Oddly enough, her strength is actually higher than Saki's.

Her skills are similarly going down two paths:



Electric Yo-Yo has the same weird targeting as her old yo-yo attack, and does a 20-power lightning-element magic attack.



Spinning Yo-Yo hits a wide area around her for physical damage. Since it's physical, it's easy enough to reduce via Stram or Diggin', so this usually isn't much more than a nuisance.



Finally, we get to Mio. Her spell list has some debilitating debuffs, including Cold and Stram. Unfortunately for us, our WOW! and Speedy user is currently being held hostage by the main villain.



She's also got Alhealer+, so if you don't hurry up and take her down, she can prolong the fight unnecessarily. Among the three, she comes in dead last for all the stats, aside from the three-way tie in vitality.

Skill-wise, much like the other two, she's just packing upgrades to what she had previously. Super Balloon causes sleep and has a 15% chance of causing paralysis.



Kill Stun Gun is a 35-power lightning-element attack that causes paralysis.



She also has the goofiest fucking face ever while using it.



If all that weren't bad enough, each of the three has access to Trinity Attack, at 60-power non-elemental magical AoE. The only way to defend against this is to spread out and hope they don't pick on someone too weak.



.... Hmm. The red-haired one focuses on making large numbers pop out of enemies, the green-haired one plays support, and the purple-haired one is more of a red mage. Where have I seen that setup before...?



Ahh, well, probably nothing.

Really, though, this fight was balanced to be difficult and strategic, but not impossible. Each of Saki's buffs can be neutralized by either Rapp or Justin, and Guido's around to handle people who get hit with Cold.



Of course, you'll be weathering attacks from all three of them, and it's very easy for Mio to lock you down with multitarget sleep and paralysis, so you'll have to anticipate what'll be happening a few rounds from now, instead of reacting to everything as it comes. Mogay Bomb's instant cast time and wide area of effect is great for buying time for another attack or someone to recover. But that seems fair for a 3-on-3 matchup with major, named recurring antagonists, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7_gkE1G85M (Polsy link)

.... Of course, that's the hard way of doing the fight. More fun if you're overleveled, but if you've been skipping encounters throughout the game and haven't done the bonus dungeons, trying this might not work out so well.

In that case, there's another strategy that works wonders: pick whichever one you dislike the most and just go nuts on her until she drops. Once one of them is gone, the others can't use Trinity Attack, so their options for multitarget offense are more limited.

Mio is the usual choice for the sacrificial lamb here, owing to her low HP and annoying moves.

Honestly, re-watching this, I almost feel bad for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmB4oEp0sfc (Polsy link)

Anyway.



During the fight, Rapp joins the "murder everyone with icicles" club.



And afterwards... well, letting someone with the Miraculous Scales deal the finishing blow to two of the three enemies tends to skew your gold reward just a little bit.



I think this is Guido's first level? I dunno, I haven't been paying attention.

Also, holy crap, Justin has nearly as much SP as Guido does HP.

I, uh... I think I might be more overleveled that I originally thought.





Dangit, Rapp. I was just starting to like you again, too, after seeing Neo Demon Ball nearly hit 2000 damage.

: All right, where's Feena? Take us to wherever that old buzzard Baal is!

: ...

: H-ha! Ha. Ha! So you think you've BEATEN us? That's funny. Right, Saki?

: Right...? Oh! Yeah... RIGHT! We just LET you win. Didn't we? Mio?

: We did...? OH! Yes! We DID! It was all part of our PLAN!

: It was ALL planned from the start to give us some time. And you BOYS fell for it! Ahem, according to my calculations the Grandeur is now about to arrive at its destination, J Base.



I do love how their threats have gone from forced labor, starvation and execution to "Nuh-uh! I've got, like, a MILLION friends! And they'll all beat you up! So there!"

: We'll get even with you Justin. And you too monkey boy and rabbit man!



And with that, they run off, ready to disappear until the plot calls for them again.

: Look at them go. Now what, Juss?



Ahh, yes, the ever-popular "head towards the first console you see" method of controlling a giant airship.

Hey, if it worked for Citan....

: Hmm, let's see.



: Mmm... ARGH! BOGUS! I don't know what to do.



Some beeping sounds play here. Just in case you thought Rapp wouldn't just start randomly pressing buttons.

: Hey, Rapp, I don't think that "a;lgja;lghajadoi" is going to help us out, here.

: Don't worry, Juss. It's a Unix system! I know this!

: "sudo rm -rf /"?



: Whoops! Hmm... oh well!



Welp. And now the screen's shaking.

: Most likely Rappino, you break the ship. "Final Order"... capisci?

: Yeah, right, well that's OK! I was gonna trash it ANYway.

: Whatever, look, we GOTTA get moving and find Feena, OK? Now we have even LESS time.

Yep, Rapp just activated the self-destruct. Gotta say that Justin's taking the whole thing pretty well, though.

Naturally, the first thing to do is loot the piles of gold laying around. Because adventure!



There's no reason to come in here, but you can.



It's been far too long since I've done that.



That wall is painted with modern airplanes. I just realized that.



Oh dear. Things aren't looking so good here.







: Rapp! GUIIII-DOOOO!

: Forget US, Justin! FEENA! RESCUE FEENA!



Rapp and Guido's chunk of ship keeps on drifting away.

: Shut UP, already! Rescue FEENA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbE5K9ebRCo (Polsy link)

In case you don't want to watch the FMV, here's a short summary.





Welp.

See you next time!