Grandia Part #175

Part 175: J Base

Welcome back! By my count, this should be the big 100^th episode spectacular!

_{^{_{Update's content is not guaranteed to be meaningfully different from other updates. Side effects may include growing a tentacle spider-crab-scorpion monstrosity for an arm and referring to everyone as "worms". If grinding persists for more than four hours, consult a doctor.}}}

: This is quite different from what I had expected. It seems to be a separate edifice constructed on top of an Angelounian ruin. I sense the powers of Gaia inside.

I do have to wonder what the soldiers stationed here thought of the spikes out front.

: If Colonel Mullen in the Tactical Command Center can arrest General Baal, our mutiny will have succeeded! All personnel stand by! Until there are new orders from Colonel Mulen. All personnel stand by!

: Mutiny!? What is Mullen up to now!? What about Gaia? What's going on with Gaia? Come on you guys, let's go!

There's actually quite a bit of the base to explore, and people to chat with, but we've got other things to take care of right now.

Mullen is over in the TACOM Center, so let's check that out.

: Ungh... un... reinforcements? Too late for me... the Colonel... help the Colonel.... The Colonel chased Baal.... Baal had a secret... passageway... in the corner... statue....

Man, it would suck if the only way to get to Baal was via an airship or something.

: Mullen! Are you OK!? What happened to Baal!?

: Justin... why? Why did you give Baal the Spirit Stone?!

: ....!

: By giving him the Spirit Stone, you gave him the key to eternal destruction! Didn't... didn't you realize that?!

: B-but... I...!

: Y'know, Mullen, if you had told me this back in Zil Padon instead of just pulling your sword on me, maybe we wouldn't be in this mess right now!

: What?!

: You heard me! And it took you this long to realize that Baal was evil? What, you were okay with sacrificing people for Gaia when Cafu got petrified?! And I suppose telling the little orphan girl that she'll never see her family again was all part of the greater good!?

: We don't have time for this! Hurry! Baal must be stopped... or the world...! Gaia... he's going to...!

: Mullen! Mullen! Are you all right!?

: Don't worry. He has just lost consciousness.

:.... Dammit, I wasn't done yelling at him yet.

: The Gen... Baal has gone through this passageway to where Gaia is kept. He means to unite the Spirit Stones and awaken Gaia! Please! Justin... Feena! You MUST stop him!

: And it seems to have been used to build some sort of facility.

: BAAL! I won't let you get away with this!

Yeah, in short, Mullen is still a douche, even though he's now on our side.

Anyway, that passage leads to our next dungeon.

Much like with the End of the World, it is its own destination on the world map, even though going through the secret passage warps you there, and it gets sealed off once you beat it.

Unlike the End of the World, though, the dungeon is short, and there's a boss waiting for us at the end.

Still better than Luzet, that's for damn sure.

Hyena Men are probably the most common enemies around. As you can see, they're weak to everything, and with their low vit, that includes non-elemental physical attacks. They've got two skills: Bite, which is a fairly damaging single-target attack, and All Together!, which calls more Hyena Men. They can be mildly dangerous if you're out of MP and SP, haven't upgraded your armor since the first time you went to Zil Padon, and you let them summon a bunch of friends. Otherwise, they're basically free XP.

Stuttles are a bit more hardy than the Hyena Men. Howlnado can put the hurt on if you let a large group spam it all the time, but since you can buy complete wind immunity for a few thousand gold....

Finally, the scarab. Earth Attack hits a small radius, slightly larger than a Burn! spell, for non-elemental damage.

Other than that, they're pretty resilient against physical attacks, but weak to all elements.

"Underground Railway" isn't just a name, by the way. There are ancient Angelounian trains scattered about.

That is a terrible level, Rapp.

Liete gains her first level with the group, pulling up alongside Rapp in vit. And bringing her max HP up above Justin's max SP.

Ostensibly, this is intended for Liete. But fuck that noise, auto-Regen all the way.

Eventually, you come to the station.

And we've got a save point, stashing place, and a blue potion waiting for us.

A word of advice: make sure you save on a different slot here. There's kind of a lot that happens once we go through that door.

And, in preparation for things to come, I decide to heal everyone up to full using my items.

What is to come, you ask? Well, that's easy!

First, I'm gonna go bug a Hyena Man, and wait for one of them to summon allies.

Then, I'm going to cast snooze until Feena runs out of MP.

Then, I'm going to run the fuck away, heal up at the save point, and repeat the process from the top.

It's worth noting that the results screen will only show up to 999 XP gained. I mean, this is pretty much the only situation that you'll ever run into that, but it's worth noting.

Anyway, after slightly less than two hours, Feena gained the 71 water levels she needed to hit 99.

And now for the fun bit.

Reviving everybody, and keeping them clustered together for 99 castings of Runner per battle.

Thankfully, this went a bit quicker than expected, only about two and a half hours to get 66 wind levels.

But the results.... Feena, in addition to her massive defense from her equipment, now has nearly 300 HP, and casts all of her water, forest, wind, blizzard, and lightning spells at max speed.

... Her agility is through the roof, too, but that really doesn't matter. Especially not with the warp shoes equipped.

So, Time Gate. Costs a full 99 MP, and freezes everyone but Feena for a few rounds. Seems broken as shit, right?

Well, for starters, since it's literally impossible to gain any more water or wind levels, it's stuck at the slowest casting speed, so that kind of sucks.

Secondly, while it does let Feena get a few turns in uninterrupted, it also stops the rest of the party. No matter what, Feena isn't gonna be pushing the same numbers alone that Justin and Rapp can together.

So, Feena's best off using it to buy time to heal up the party. Except the only stat buff spell she has that isn't level 1 is Speedy, and if she needs to restore HP or cure status effects, she has Tree of Life, which is cheaper, quicker to cast, and learned much earlier.

The real kicker, though, is that the spell wasn't always like this.

Using the debug menu to have access to it on Disc 1, we can see a few interesting changes. What sort?

How about being learned 81 levels earlier?

Or costing a quarter of the MP?

Along with the lower requirements was a lower power, though. The cheaper version was a 600-power skill, while the final one has a power of 2000.

Granted, I can't say for certain whether the disc 1 version of the skill was how it was originally intended or if it was modified to make it easier to test or something.

But I can say for certain that a weaker, cheaper, easier to get version of Time Gate would have been more interesting, tactically.

Anyway, enough

. Time to go stab Baal until he stops twitching.

And we finally get a name for the room there.

: You again... boy.

: You're too late. As we speak, the great power of Angelou will revive itself thanks to your Spirit Stone! Can you not FEEL the breath of GAIA!?

Y'know, just in case you forgot about the demonic electric spiky pinecone of death.

: Hah, hah, haa! AS WE SPEAK! Our roots are growing everywhere on the Earth!

: You will destroy YOURSELF TOO! STOP IT! STOP GAIA NOW!

: No one... NO ONE!

: No one can stop me now! We shall feed on ALL LIFE!

: What the...?! What is he TALKING about?

Yep, it's becoming unclear whether Baal has a leafy crab-scorpion-spider thing for a right arm, or Gaia has a green-haired weirdo growing out of its left side.

: HA, HA!! So... the Icarian is here, too!

: ...!

: Do you think to trap me again? Hah, ha, haaa! Impossible!

Oh hey, finally we get a callback to the Gadwin stew incident!

... Yes, I am going to continue to believe that it's an intentional reference, and not just somewhat weird wording.

Of course, we already know his secret. He has no need to hold back.

: NEVER! Gaia WILL be STOPPED!

Here he is, in all his glory. Let's take a look at his stats, shall we?

The first thing to notice is that he's given up all the spells he had back on the Grandeur. In exchange, his sword inflicts a random status ailment with each swing. Needless to say, Move or Magic Block can fuck up your day right quick. Sleep and Paralysis can take a character out for a short while, but they're probably the least annoying ones to get. Poison is, as usual, more annoying for the IP stun each tick inflicts than for the small bit of damage it does. Plague can continue to inflict random ailments or stat debuffs, and Confusion will either wreck your face or wear off harmlessly, depending on how close the victim is to getting their turn.

The next thing to notice is that he has access to Vanish, but as a skill rather than a spell. I'm not entirely sure why, but Baal is the only enemy in the game to use the skill instead of the spell.

: Resistance is futile! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Finally, he's got Gaia Power, which heals him for 400 HP.

As expected of a major boss, he's resistant to all magic, immune to all statuses, has a hefty chunk of HP and a decent vitality to protect it. That 230 wit means that he gets his turns often enough to keep the pressure on.

But wait! There's more!

Yes, the Gaia Tentacle is a separate target in this fight, and if you want to end things quickly, it's the one to go after. It has more HP, true, but that's offset by no elemental resistances and a lower vitality.

: There! Ha ha ha ha ha!

The tentacle is also the offensive half of this fight. Gaia Strike is a 130-power attack on a single character that leaves them stunned.

: Ha! Try this on for size!

Gaia Fang hits a large area around Baal for about 70 damage, as well as debuffing defense by two levels. Both of these also fling their victims around.

Now, what about Hoist Heel? Certainly sounds like some sort of awesome axe-kick.

: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

It's not. It's the Tentacle's way of healing itself.

It recovers 700 HP, though, so just one can undo all but your heaviest hits.

Oddly enough, both Gaia Power and Hoist Heel are defined with a power of 350.

Both parts have separate HP totals, but the fight ends when either of them are defeated. The "smart" strategy would, therefore, be pick one to blitz down and end the battle before the status effects and stat debuffs have a chance to get you. If you do spread out the pain, though, Liete is a godsend. Not only for the damage she can do, but also because she has access to a lot of the spells that used to only have one caster, like Cold or Poizn.

The latter isn't much help here, granted, but it does mean that a single Magic Block isn't going to remove your access to a basic spell.

But, I figure if you're gonna be fighting a big boss like this, might as well try and end it with some style, right? So, to that end, enter Feena.

Step one, damage both of the parts to critical HP. This makes the fight much longer, especially with both parts being able to heal themselves. But once that's accomplished....

: Oh, Spirits of blue, halt the bells of time that peal forever!

And just like that, everyone but Feena is frozen in time. Only for a few rounds, granted, but more than long enough for Feena to do what she needs to.

: Oh, Spirits of green, bring the sparkling blessings of the Tree of Life!

Tree of Life is an excellent panic button. It restores all HP, cures all ailments including death, and restores any debuffed stat level back up to zero. It's the only way to cure status or revive multiple people at once, and it's the only Icarian magic usable from the menu.

Best of all, it only costs 28 MP. A hefty price, sure, but more than reasonable for what it does.

So, time is frozen, and Feena and her allies are restored to tip-top shape. What's our final move going to be?

Why, dropping an apocalypse on Baal.

: Oh, Spirits of red, use the furious flame to crush evil into dust!

These images only show for about a second or so, but there's a lot of detail to appreciate in them. Like that face in the middle of those wings.

Anyway, Feena calls upon the red Spirits....

To engulf the whole battlefield in a sea of flames.

End of the World's 33 MP cost is quite hefty, especially if the RNG decides that Feena doesn't need any level 3 MP. In exchange, though, every enemy on the field takes 999 damage. No saving throws, no resistance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l68KIkDPq0 (Polsy link)

The video is worth watching, both for the animations on Feena's spells, and for Baal once again chewing the scenery like a goat at a school play.

Granted, none of that is necessary. Between Redshock, Zap! Whip, Demonball, and Thor Cut, it's not that hard to focus the tentacle down in two or three rounds, as shown here.

Well, we did it! Eleven thousand XP, and ten thousand gold for saving the world. The extra five thousand is from the Miraculous Scales.

Wow, Justin is only a single point of HP behind Feena. Who, you may recall, recently gained 70 or so while acquiring a certain spell. But think how far Justin's come since Parm. In fact, let's go take a look at how he was then, shall we?

Justin actually turned out pretty balanced, levels-wise. His fire/wind is a bit higher than his water/earth, but seven levels isn't much at this stage. His weapons are even closer, all within a single level of 40.

His strength and wit have skyrocketed, being a minimum of 100 points above his other stats. His defensive gear isn't up to snuff, but with that 90 vit and nearly 300 HP, he doesn't need to care about that anymore.

Justin started his adventure swatting flies with a wooden stick. Now he's defeated the single most powerful swordsman in the world, who himself was using the powers of the evil that brought the advanced civilization of Angelou to ruin.

Standard JRPG fare, I know, but seeing just how much the characters grow, in personality as well as numbers, is important to any story. Doubly so when it's one that focuses on adventure like this.

Yep, there is nothing quite like enjoying the feeling of peace and accomplishment, knowing that the world is safe forever, thanks to you.

Safe forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpXljtc3-y0 (Polsy link)

(Video plays through end of update. It has voices and an FMV. Watch it!)

Everything is good and safe. Nothing can go wrong now, right?

Baal's voice seems to come from everywhere. The party forms up, trying to find him.

: B-B Baal?! You...!

: I can hear the great will. I'll devour it all! The world! EVERYTHING!!

: O' Gaia! Grand your boundless power to me! Become one with me!!

Uh-oh.

And from here on out, Baal no longer has a portrait. There is a reason for this.

Of course the villain can't have their big powering up scene without striking the heroes with lightning.

Thankfully, Leen shows up to bail us out.

Also, I like that Rapp was the only one to make his reflex save.

Without the Spirit Stone to protect us from Gaia's power, Leen uses her Icarian abilities.

: LEEN!

: Sister!?

: Everyone RUN! HURRY!

Baal's voice seems to be coming from Gaia.

Or, maybe, Gaia is speaking to us though Baal's voice. Maybe there is no longer a distinction between Baal and Gaia. Maybe there never was, and "Baal" ceased to be as soon as he received that arm. Who can say?

Regardless, Gaia has no portraits, and when I did the subtitles on the upcoming FMV a year ago, I had forgotten quite a bit of the nuance, so he's going to be labeled as Baal for the time being.