Part 27: New Parm
And the proper update.----
Welcome back!
"Do you want to advance the plot, or talk to more NPCs?"
: I'm bushed, so let's turn in.For the record, that last screenshot was on frame 300.
This one was frame 54,000
: Whaaaaat!? Not swabbing the decks again! We're the heroes who saved the ship.
: Of course you're heroes! But you're still apprentice sailors, right? So go to sleep!
: Justin, good morning! Let's go swab the deck.On the way up, though...
: Too bad. You're fired as sailors! You don't have to swab the decks!
I love how even Puffy goes bug-eyed in Sue's flinch animation.
: What for!? We were working so hard!: Ah ha ha ha ha ha! What are those faces for? Just listen to me, OK? We've reached the 
: Huh!?: Ah ha ha ha ha! Look, go up to the bow. You can see the New World!
: I can see it! There it is!
: Huh!? Wait up, Justin!
: Say, Justin! With that much space, you can do a lot of adventures!
: Puff Puff Puff!
: Ah hahaha, Puffy. Don't worry. There's plenty of delicious food there. Right, Justin?
: Say, are you listening, Justin? Yoo-hoo, Justin?Sue turns to face Justin when saying this.
: Oh. I heard you, Sue.
: The New World... we're really here!
: ...... I can't wait to find out what's out there for us, Justin.
You either have a sliver of boat at the bottom or a very obvious tiling seam in the background. Since the focus is on those brown pixels, I figured I'd make that look as best as I can.
Especially considering it mysteriously vanishes as soon as Feena appears.
: Hi, Feena!
: Ahh. New Parm. It's been a while.
: You two, is this your first time to the New World?
I do like when the faces on the sprites match up with the portraits.
: Continent of dreams and hopes...!: I know your dreams will come true, Justin!
: Say, Justin! Get ready to go ashore!: Tell me when you're going ashore! I'll go with you!
Frame 66500...
... and frame 97000.
I spend a long time talking to the NPCs here, is what I'm getting at.
: Great! We're finally going to land in New Parm!
: Yeah! Yippeee!
: We did it! We're the first ones here!
: Wow! We really did it! We've come to a new land!: You're right!
: Now, I can finally start the great adventure I've been dreaming about! Oh! I can't wait!: Puff! Puff!
: I'm going to the Adventurers Society. I've got an intro letter from my Mom.: Oh. The Adventurers Society. You mentioned that before.: I guess this is where we say good-bye.: Eh? Aren't you comeing with us, Feena?
: Sorry, but I have a reason.: If you like, come see me at my house. Just take the road from New Parm and follow the Merrill Road.: OK. As soon as I get the chance, I'll be sure to go visit you!: Good-bye, Feena!
On her way out, Feena stops suddenly.
Also, those damn seagulls keep on getting in the way.
: Oh, no!: What's the matter, Feena?: Um... I forgot something important.
: Huh? What for...?: It's OK, just raise your hand. Come on, hurry!
: Hmm... just as I thought. ♥: Well, here goes.
Goddamn photobombing seagull.
: Feena!: I get it! The adventurer's greeting! Cool, isn't it, Justin!
: Hmm... Justin, you seem to have what it takes to be an adventurer.: How about another adventure sometime! Well, time to say good-bye. May And with that, she walks off, leaving us with even more NPCs to chat with. We'll just be visiting one this time, though.
: Oh, no, you've found me! Please! Don't tell anyone!: Huh? I heard a voice....
: Hey! It's that old man, the stowaway from the ship!This event doesn't trigger if you don't find out about the old man being a stowaway.
: Oh! You're that boy I met before! Thanks for keeping quiet just then. Here's a token of my appreciation.
That sounds helpful.
: OK, I'm counting on you. Now please go away.
Yeah, that's helpful. Now to plop it into the Stashing Place and forget about it until long after it's no longer useful.
This place seems important.
: Some business? Well, yes, I want to become an adventurer.
: Oh, no, what a hassle. The procedure is to go to our main office, in the plaza at the town center. (Yawn) Persistent, aren't you? Look, this here's a setellite office. The main office is in the town center. I think they were open late yesterday. (Yaaawwn) OK, now get going. I need to get back to my noon nap. Mutter mutter mumble mumble.: Jeez! Get a load of him! I can't believe adventurers would keep someone like that around.Hmm. Let's go check out the main office.
And the port and town are separate places on the world map. If you look closely, you can see Feena's house, too.
Festive music!
Hmm. That staff icon looks new.
That is how we get our magic! As discussed in the spoilers above, after beating the Squid King a Mana Egg shows up in our inventory. No message, no fanfare, it just shows up in the inventory. Or the Stashing Place, if you have no free space.
Anyway, you have your choice of four spells. Burn! and Howl, we've already seen, and Heal is pretty obvious.
But Diggin', though...
It increases the Defense level for the whole party. Handy, but so are the others. I'll go over more details later.
Anyway, we've got bamboo armor, turticamel shell shields, cowboy hats, and hunter's boots for sale in the armor shop. The armor and shield are straight upgrades, the hat is the same as the pirate hat, and the boots give a defense boost, but reduce movement compared to the sneakers.
I suppose this is the point where I mention the cowboy and pirate hats we have and make some comment about fanart.
The weapon shop is loaded. The ceramic sword is still available, and the great sword is better than the admiral's sword we picked up on the ship. The hunting knife there has double the attack of the paring knife. The hatchet gives a big attack boost and deals extra damage to plants. The hunter's bow has the same attack as the great sword, slightly more than the thorny whip. The iron mace....
Hits like a truck, but slows down your IP gauge. -10 ACT is a huge penalty, unless you've been using fire and swords to boost your WIT to insane levels.
WIT being Sue's main problem means that, if you vote maces for her, she'll be sticking with whatever she was using on the ship.
The item shop also sells a few interesting things. The earrings provide a defense increase and resist poison. The dried fish, bamboo shoots, and beef jerky all heal a single person. Antidotes cure poison, as in every JRPG ever, the first aid kit heals the same amount as beef jerky, 60 HP, to the whole party, and we saw the smarna weeds on the ship.
The roach bombs are like grenades, only twice as powerful and effective on insects. The truffle inflicts confusion on one enemy.
Before we go to the Adventurer's Society, though, we have something important to do.
: Guess what? We came from Parm!
: Really? All the way from Parm? I have a pen pal in Parm. (cough) Her name's Francois. Do you know her?If we hadn't picked up the letter, Justin would say no here, and we'd feel bad forever. Since we did, though...
: Hmm? Fran...cois...?: I remember! The old man's letter! Is your name Clara?: Yes. (cough) She's a good friend. Helps to cheer me up, sick as I am. What's this about an old man's letter?
: Heh heh heh. Oh, nothing.: Here it is! It's from Francois. She asked us to bring it to you!: My, thank you! Let's see... "To my dearest Clara"... (cough, cough): Hey, are you all right? Is something wrong with you, ma'am?: ... (cough) In my last letter, I said I don't get out of the house much. And then... she says she asked you two to be friends with me. ♥ (cough, cough) You know, I've never traveled, really. I'd love to hear about your travels. Hee hee... then I need to write Francois and tell her I've made two new friends. ♥: I'm happy, too! You're the second new friend I've made here in New Parm, after Feena.: Hee hee... I should write to Francois right away and tell her. ♥: The old man really is nice! He did say that pretending to be a girl is a literary device.And that's that.
And finally, we're here.
: At the Adventurers Society, we've set up all kinds of adventures to meet the needs of our dear customers!: Set up adventures? I'm not sure what you mean.: Well, anyway! We'd like to go to Alent and see the Angelou Civilization.: Alent, for the Angelou Civilization? I'm afraid we haven't prepared any tours for that area. But if you'd like to see some ruins from Angelou, you can go to the Dom Ruins, south of New Parm.: That's fine! We're sure to find something goof if we go to the Dom Ruins! How do we get there?: Unfortunately, we've found that the Dom Ruins tour is kind of dangerous, so we don't send tours there any more."Kind of dangerous", she says.
: You don't go because it's dangerous? An adventure should be dangerous!: Hmm... sounds like you want to be an adventurer. Is that right? Come on, is that right or not? Then you need to be a member of the Society. You need the president's OK. He's back there, in the office.: If we become members, will they guide us to the Dom Ruins?: I'm afraid no one goes THERE now. Once you're a member, you get a map of Elencia. You can go on your own. Oh, one more thing. If he asks for a password, it's "I'm Mr. Pakon's servant, uh-yup." Got it?: Mr. Pakon...? My mother's letter is addressed to a "Mr. Gauss".: The President's office is back there. Please be honest and polite with the President, OK? ♥ If you're rude to Mr. Pakon, you won't become an Adventurers Society member. So don't say anything to upset him.
: I'm Mr. Pakon's servant, uh-yup!
... I'm getting a bad feeling about this.
That... is an awful lot of Feena.
Thaaaaaat explains it.
: Huh?! YOU are the president?! You must be joking!
: I thought the Adventurers Society President was a Mr. Gauss.
: Gauss was my daddy. He died a long time ago. Now I'M the president, uh-yup!: Really? I mean, uh, so you are.: Justin, don't forget to ask about joining!: Right. Well, since Gauss is dead I have no choice but to deal with this bozo.: Anyway, we'd uh, we'd like to join the Society. How do we do that?: Our membership's already full, uh-yup. Ya gotta get some adventurers to lend ya their adventurer's passes, uh-yup.: Now wait just a minute! Look here, I've got a letter of introduction from my mother. My father was an adventurer. He knew Mr. Gauss.: Hmm... so I see. So? Ya thought this piece of paper would get ya an adventurer's pass? I'M the one who decides who gets to have a pass, uh-yup yup! Just toss that piece of garbage! I made up some new adventurer's passes when I became the president, uh-yup. Clever, huh?: Wha... what is this? It's got Feena's picture on the cover and this kitschy pink color....
: Yeah, her picture looks horrible.
: AND she's MY fiancee, uh-yup yup! We're a real lovey-dovey couple and we're gettin' married soon, uh-yup!: No kidding. But why would Feena want to marry some clown like you?!
: Wha... hey, th... that's rude! Now I'm NEVER gonna let YOU into MY Adventurers Society, uh-yup!: Don't act so big, dude! You're just my servant, uh-yup!: Wha... what!? Your servant!? Since when did I become your servant?!: Since before you came in here. Remember? You said "I'm Mr. Pakon's servant, uh-yup!" So there!: Ye... yeah, but....: I'm NEVER gonna let rude people like YOU into MY Adventurers Society! Now go home, uh-yup!: Wow, looks like we hit a snag here. Forget the Adventurers Society! I can go on an adventure by myself!
: Nut, anyway why would Feena get engaged to someone like him?: What do you think, Sue?
: Well, it's hard to understand, but...: I think Feena's got bad taste.: Even so, we don't have other plans. Let's go see Feena at her house, huh? I'm sure she'd at least lend us a map.: To get there, we just have to leave New Parm and take the Merrill road. Com' on, Justin. Let's go!
Next time!