Part 38: Inside Dom Ruins

Fuck it, (slightly)early update because I got tired of waiting for Sunday.

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Welcome back! Today, we delve into the deep, dank depths of Dom.





More faces, some of which are angry and try to smash you.



More Orcs.



Huh. Looks like that one dropped a mace.



A Holy Mace, at that.



+9 attack over the Mining Hammer she's been using, and it's effective on ghosts. Sue grabs onto this and never lets go.



Hmm. That passageway to the right looks interesting, but we can't get there just yet. That door, on the other hand...











God damn, that's a hell of a cliff.







And a potion of some sort over on another platform.





Ancient elevator in here. Also, this is the first time we have more than one way to go in the dungeon. We stay up on the top floor for now.



Ghosts! And bread!



Good thing Sue has the Holy Mace to deal with them.



Because Justin and Feena aren't scratching them with normal attacks.



Welp.



Effective weapons are crazy. The ghosts only have 35 HP.



Meaning if you have to chip away at them, it's not going to take forever. Unless you whiff, like Justin did with his second attack here.



These fuckers, much like the slimes, can divide. Fortunately, they only add one ghost to the fight.

Not that it matters, as Sue brutally re-murders it before the move can go off.



The vengeful spirits can drop Crescent Jades. I'm sure they'll come in handy at some point.



And the ghost bread was a Seed of Power.







Yeah, skills don't do much to these guys, either. Well, for the most part.



V-Slash and W-Break can also deal decent damage to these guys. Y'know, in case you don't have any magic, no Holy Maces, and don't want to run away.



Sword level and another Crescent Jade.



Hitting the elevator switch causes the face on the floor to glance over at you for a bit.



Potions and orcs down that path.



Also, other paths down that path.



Ahh, a Resurrection Potion. Helpful!



Justin eats a Cholla flower and gains a wind level with the MP gained from it.



And Feena gains a dagger level while finishing off the stragglers.



Missing from the DungeonScope: The orcs and slimes hiding in the northeastern blue room.



So, there are a few rooms with levers like this. What do they do?



Drops away the floor, getting rid of any monsters in the room. Of course, it's better to, y'know, kill them all.



And, with my sense of direction being what it is, I wind up turning around and running back past the elevator. At least I grab another blue pill out of it.



Once back on the right track, Sue gains a Mace level.



More hallways. Wait, what's that behind me?



Bats and ghosts. Nothing notable about it.



But a group of orcs give both Feena and Sue a level up. Feena's really digging that +3 strength.



Ahh, good, we've found the bridge across this bottomless gap. Look out, Dom, he we-



Oh. Crap. At least we get a resurrection potion out of it? The vine is there so we can get back up, so let's head back in.



"Stronger enemies give way more skill XP per hit than weak ones do, so if you stop to grind, it's gonna be really damn boring."



Which certainly explains why I'm getting so many skill levels here. Justin hits Swords 10 here.



And here's that ledge from the beginning.



And another elevator. This time, we'll start by going up instead of exploring the same floor.



That other platform with a button down there is the other exit from the bottom of the elevator. What do those buttons do?



They extend a more sturdy bridge to the much fresher-looking second half of the dungeon.



I guess the ghosts and orcs on this side of the chasm kept all the painting supplies?



Even the battle areas are brighter.



Dagger level. Again.



Both ghosts, though, teleport away from the pissed-off kid wielding a hammer made of pure exorcism, dragging this on without making it any more dangerous.



Dammit. It costs the ghosts a turn's worth of IP to dodge an attack, so all it winds up doing here is drawing out a forgone victory.



Fuck you.



Bearing right here leads deeper into the dungeon, so let's head the other way.



Oh hey, this is where the bridge from before used to be before it collapsed.



The elevators and bends tend to make this place feel more confusing than it really is.



Justin gets beaten up by some orcs, and drinks a wound salve.



Hmm.



The path leads back to the cliff, which itself leads to another path back inside.



Orcs and slimes and treasures, oh my!



I do love the transparent afterimages that dodging characters leave while they run.





This is our last Mana Egg for quite a while.



If we slide down here, we come out at the chute shown a few screenshots up.



Stepping off the main path, we come to a room with a few caged orcs, one of which has a shiny. We'll be getting back to this later, before the end of the dungeon. Not because I forgot how to solve the puzzle and ran around the whole dungeon looking for a switch or anything like that. Nope.



Another elevator. Staying up on the top floor for now.



And another of the "drop the floor" levers.



Keeping on the path, we come back to the cliff. With another entrance and some gold.



Hard to see from this angle, but we're at another ledge that leads back to the beginning of the area.



And so we have a long walk back to the pre-cliff path.

Say, one of those eyes looks a little off...



Aha! Hidden passage with some items! That's nifty, right?



The other potion is a blue pill. So now that's three of 'em.

Really, the whole Dom Ruins section is tailor-made to give you a bunch of skill levels.

Anyway, going back through the ruins...



Another! This time in the "drop the floor" lever room.



That's a lot of enemies. And on the wall on the far right... is that a secret passage within the secret passage?



Before we can get to that, though, we need to kill us some monsters. Feena picks up another dagger level.



And Sue follows suit with her mace in the next fight.



Justin lags behind, and only levels his weapon with the last fight in the area.



Some gold, bats that are flying too high to fight, and a secret passage within the secret passage within the secret passage.

Really, that last bit there sums this game up quite well. Inside that last secret matryoshka is a treasure.



The Magi Clamp!



Oh. But yeah, a single target 2 MP restore for all three levels that is reusable until it randomly breaks. Useful, but not so much so that it breaking would be a terrible blow.





And the final group of bats gives Justin a level.



Sue uses the MP to top up the group's HP. And for some water XP. Gonna be tough to build that up.

And at this point I wandered around the dungeon for another twenty minutes trying to figure out that orc puzzle.



Down at the bottom of the elevator is the boss chamber. If you noticed a discrepancy between my item stocks between when I picked up the Mana Egg and the secret-passagestravaganza, it's because I ducked down here to use the Stashing Place.

Speaking of, that's what the hint is about. Better late than never, I guess?



Speaking of late, I was finally able to perform the difficult task of... examining the middle of the floor.

Yeah.



The orcs went down without a hitch, but the item is interesting. Shell armor, which goes straight onto Sue. Because, y'know, she needs to be even more invincible than she already is. I mean, some of those enemies can actually deal damage to her!



And, using up our Miracle Drink for the hell of it, here's our stats going into the boss fight.



And what an ugly motherfucker it is. But that'll have to wait until next time.

Next time: Boss fight! Cutscenes! Voice acting!