Grandia Part #146 - Tower of Temptaion finale

Part 146: Tower of Temptaion finale

Guess my idea for an April Fool's joke wasn't as funny or interesting as I thought.

Here's the proper update.

----

Welcome back!

I'm gonna be honest; I wasn't expecting this update to even be possible. The first boss alone took me seven tries, and it was still more a matter of luck than of strategy.

That said, I wasn't just bashing my head against the wall until I succeeded. I did come up with a plan, and modify it as things changed.

After six unsuccessful attempts at the first boss, here's how it went.

Feena takes the Glass Slippers, as well as "borrowing" Rapp's Godspeed Knife and Hurricane Belt. Along with the Plug Suit, her Act stat is boosted by 125. Being the party's best healer, Feena getting her turns as often as possible gives me my best chance for survival.

Justin keeps the same gear he walked into the tower with. It winds up being enough of a handicap to keep things more interesting.

Rapp started with the Ruination Knife for the extra attacks, but switched to the Demonslayer Boomerang so that he could actually deal damage.

Finally, Milda's whole job is to hit things until they stop moving, so doesn't need her gear tweaked much.

With the preamble out of the way, let's show what the bosses are made of, shall we?

Gargoyle, much like Ganymede before him, doesn't have very many tricks. The head can suck in, then do an AoE physical attack. The main body can use Rush Attack, where he dashes across the screen hitting everyone in a line, and Beat Attack, where he hits a small area in front of him.

If this sounds exactly like Ganymede, that's because it is. Gargoyle is much tougher, faster, and hits harder, though.

The main body can also cast Vanish.

The big thing that saved me was his use of Beat Attack when it wouldn't hit anyone.

Justin there is just recovering from another attack.

Another big breakthrough is relying on V-Slash instead of Justin's more expensive skills. Sure, they do more damage at once, but a second V-Slash is going to be better overall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO1Cqw3vZWk (Polsy link)

Still, with some careful planning, and a bit of luck, Gargoyle goes down without too many issues.

His drops are about the quality you'd expect from this dungeon. The Spirit Potion is a full MP restore to the whole party, and the Magic Rod is a mace that increases magic power by two levels. It's basically tailor-made for our final party member.

Justin and Rapp both enjoy the rewards of a job well done, too.

Up on the 11th floor, we find this charming little minx.

The Slug Fish is just a powered-up version of the Grinwhale, except her Lure's Entice can also inflict confusion. And target Rapp.

The main body can also cast Vanish.

Or rather, the main body can try to cast Vanish, but it seems to have an infinite casting time for whatever reason.

Boss number one was possible through luck. Boss number two was possible through a glitch.

Needless to say, being unable to do anything doesn't end well for the poor fish, and I replenish a decent amount of SP in the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhcsiVq2ks8 (Polsy link)

As well as from the Gold Potion it drops. The Mysterious Veil is mostly just vendor trash; it gives +3 resist to all status aliments. Not bad, but I'd expect a bit more than something we can go buy an upgrade of in the previous town.

Feena gets the level this time, and leads us up to our final challenger. Unlike the Slug Fish, who fell on my first attempt, the final boss of the tower took four tries to successfully put down.

And for once, his skills are sufficiently different from his palette-swap to make this interesting.

For starters, the Right Tentacle can cast Zap! and Alhealer. In a vacuum, neither are particularly deadly, but having to deal with the other parts as well can turn it into a death sentence. The Right Tentacle is the first to go.

The Left Tentacle can use Suck In, or do a physical swipe. Despite it being far less dangerous than the main body, it's the next target to die.

As for the main body....

Twin Typhoon here is its bread and butter. It shoots out two tornadoes that travel in a spiral pattern. Anyone they contact is hit by the attack and tossed around.

Since the tornadoes come from the tentacles, destroying both of them removes this attack.

Failing that, it can cast Zap All. Which is painful.

Finally, Laser Eye is the same sort of linear, laser-style AoE attacks we've been seeing a lot of lately. It hurts. A lot.

The mofo also passively regenerates HP, like the Kung-Fu Master.

The main body can also cast Vanish. You'll notice that that's been a trend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzUchl_9pCw (Polsy link

For the third boss, planning, strategy, and actually being able to cancel attacks carry the day.

Poor Rapp is put out of commission, though, and misses the post-battle level up.

Still, though, the rewards are great. The Man's Headband there increases defense by 28 and attack by 15. In a normal game, Justin would love that one.

Still, that's not all. There's one more area of the tower left to go.

And it's up on the roof.

That looks import- hang on.

Yes, a treasure horde so huge, they have to give you a Stashing Place to make sure you can hold it all.

In the northwest corner, we have "things what are good at keeping fragile party members alive".

Southwest corner is home to "Stuff what is great for someone who gets hit a lot".

The northeast corner holds the legendary "crap what is meant for people who don't want to die".

The big box in the center holds this beauty.

The real ultimate treasures of the tower, though, are still to come. We pick up the first two in the southeast corner. Or up and to the left, relative to the staircase.

These two accessories are worth their weight in gold, especially if you get your grubby paws on them this early.

And, the final treasure from the roof of the tower....

Instead of going up, follow the catwalk all the way around.

Gotta go fast!

Yeah, that's +70 to wit. That alone would do wonders for giving Milda turns more frequently. Then again, the Astral Miracle would fit her quite well, too. As would the Energy Charm.

But before we take the teleporter back outside, there was one thing I missed.

One weapon of each type, just waiting for us at the entrance. What's so special about these? Why did I leave them until the end?

To answer the second question... to ensure I had enough room for all the other loot. As for the first....

Way back at the beginning of this LP, I mentioned that upgrading weapons ASAP isn't always the best idea, as you'll kill enemies in fewer hits, and thus get less weapon XP. The Zero weapons are the other end of that. Their zero attack power means that you'll always take a few more hits in order to put the enemies down, which gives you a few extra attacks worth of XP.

Fun fact: Sitting around unused are a few pieces of Zero armor. They were likely scrapped for being entirely useless, outside of a challenge context.

And finally, Milda spends all the money we got going through the tower on a Move Ring (+3 Move Power), and the Miraculous Scales (doubles money drops).

And with that, we're out of MP, out of SP, Rapp is dead, and we only have one space left in the inventory.