Part 183: Attack on Zil Padon 3

Welcome back! Today's update was delayed for suspense purposes, and not at all because I've been distracted by roguelikes or anything like that.



: Yeah... that BEAST Gaia....

: JUSTIN! HELLO! WAKE UP, JUSTIN!



Rapp isn't even standing over Justin, he's just yelling at him.

: What about Gaia!? Is Feena OK?!

: Huh?



Thankfully, Feena's mystical ability to give a shit allows her to wake up.

Also, the background music here is one of the many, many ambient wind tracks this game has.

: Every part of Gaia that attacked this city has ceased functioning, thanks to Gaia's new powers.

: Justin... Feena...

: Leen...?

: I have an apology to make to you. For trying to force you to agree to abandoning the town to Gaia.



Well, that's not ominious in the slightest!

: I'm going back to the Colonel. Stay here as long as the Forces are on the move. Leave everything to me.

: But Leen....

: Good-bye Justin, Feena.



Rapp, unlike Feena, has not yet mastered the power of caring.

: Oh right. I almost forgot. The Mogay have pitched a tent for us to stay in near the Rafane Gate. It's real colorful so you'll spot it right away. Let's go there and relax.

: I'm a little tired Jusitn. Let's go.

Before we do that, let's scope out the city a bit.



Things are kind of a mess, yeah.



On the other hand, we've got this semi-hidden store in one of the ruined Alqada buildings.



Most of the attack items we've either seen before, or are pretty obvious what they do. I don't recall if we've seen the Freesia Flowers before, but they restore 8 MP for all levels to one ally. Pretty helpful. The Magic Lipstick and Black Nail Polish give +3 to wit and attack, respectively.

But the Telescope....



"Extends the attack range" is a little bit of an understatement here.

Brief technical info: Every single weapon has an attack range parameter. Daggers, being the smallest weapons, have a range of zero. Shortswords, maces, and most axes have a range of one, longswords and whips (and the Earthen Axe) have a range of two. The long range weapons are more variable, but most throwing weapons have a range of 10-12, while most bows are in the 15-20 range. The Thunder Arrow, which has the notable "long range" trait, has an attack range of 25.

The Telescope takes whatever value the weapon has, then adds 128 to it.

No, that's not just a quirk of the engine where a range modifier of 128 is a magic value to do something special, the telescope literally makes the attack range of any weapon cover the entire battlefield. Needless to say, I find this hilarious and buy four of them.

.... Granted, most of the party still has some form of teleportation gear on, so they warp next to the enemy when they attack anyway, but still.



There are actually two Mogay tents by the Rafane Gate. The one closer to the street is the one Rapp was talking about. The one tucked away behind it, though....



Is another store.



Sadly, Mink Coats are now lost forever, but at least they stocked up on Lafa Flower shields from Cafu.

Devil Robes are new, though, and +2 resistance to all elements would be great on its own, even without it being more defensive than current armor.

I only have the gold to afford one, though. Thankfully the Telescopes were cheap enough that buying four didn't matter too much.

Nothing new in the item shop, though it still includes HP, MP, and SP potions, as well as the "no status effects ever" Talisman.

But I suppose we should go advance the plot.



: That beast Gaia has wiped out everything. Guess I'll take a rest here too.

What's this? A voiced cutscene again? Video will last through the end of the update.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VAUrRF4fYQ (Polsy link)



We fade in on Leen, sitting at her desk in silence.

No, seriously, there's not even any background music for this cutscene. Not until later, anyway.



: Your orders were to convince Feena to participate in our operations.

: .... Colonel Mullen, are we not mistaken?

: What do you mean?



: The power Feena used to protect the people of Zil Padon was clearly different from my powers. That power... that was not the power of the Icarians. It was much greater.

: ....





Honestly, it's worth watching this scene in motion. Mute it if you need to, but the sprites convey so much more body language than the portraits do.

... Actually, on second thought, mute it even if you can stand the voices. The voice work kinda ruins the tone.



: Th-then!

: No change in operations! Get Feena to cooperate by tomorrow morning! Understood?!





: Try to understand what I have to say!



: Ah....



: In order to fight Gaia we need the power of two Icarians!



: Don't you understand?!

Mullen's been backing Leen up further and further with each text box.



Thankfully, he backs off before anything bad happens.

: But even if this world is filled with sin...



This right here is the crux of Mullen's character. Even though he thinks humanity is the sole cause of all that is wrong with the world, he still is willing to fight to protect it.

I mean, he's still a friggin' dork, but at least he's in it for someone other than himself, which is why he gets to not be the villain.

: ....



"Hey, you know those wings? You know, the ones you were ashamed of until I came along and said I liked them? Yeah, they also represent how all humans are terrible, vile beasts."





After a whole bunch of "standing around talking in our default standing pose" scenes, it's refreshing to have one that's actually animated like this.

: I understand... Colonel. Tomorrow morning... as scheduled.





See you next time!