Part 200: Gaia 1

Welcome back!





Here we are, inside of Gaia. The beginning of the final leg of the final dungeon. Those of you who get squeamish from dungeons inside living things should... um...

crap, I probably should have warned you beforehand, huh? My bad.

Anyway, eagle-eyed readers may spot what appears to be a pink cactus just north of us.



That is, in fact, exactly what it is. Yeah, I dunno either.



There's some treasures scattered around.



And this pulsating thing that excretes slimes. Gaia is kind of a fucking disgusting dungeon.



It's a slime. Like most slimes, they have high physical defense and can split. Acid Gas hits a range for physical damage that also lowers defense by six levels. So, uh, try not to get overwhelmed by that.



Gaia Trees are also pretty solid, defensively, but stupid weak to fire. Illusion tries to confuse a single target, while Nut Throw just hits everyone for a pile of physical damage.



Completing the trio of palette-swapped disc 1 enemies, the Gaia Mold is honestly not much different from the other Mold-type enemies. Germ Spores cause Plague, Oxy Spores reduce defense.

All of these enemies drop gold, despite it having been useless for the past two dungeons.



So, there's this puzzle here. You run over those four cacti, and the order in which you do so causes one of six slime cubes to dissipate temporarily, allowing you access to whatever was in there. There are two items and four monster spawns. The monster slots start off as slimes, then cycle up to trees, and finally....



Mariachi cacti. Okay.



Fire Time boosts the attack of all enemies by 5, and Needles hits all allies for physical damage. Needless to say, setting them all on fire before they can do that is usually a good idea.



Despite being MIA for two dungeons, Feena's still the fastest one around. This is doubly impressive when you remember that neither water nor wind boost wit. In fact, her massive HP bonus is allowing her to tie Justin in that regard.

... Of course, Feena chowing down on a pile of stat boosters might have helped.



I took an embarrassingly long time on this puzzle. So much so that I decided to finish off this floor first.



Gelatinous goop!



It drags you over to some enemies.



Oh, and one of these.

Anyway, at this point I clear the rest of the floor and go back to the cactus puzzle.



It took me half a freaking hour.



Still, this is Feena's ultimate whip. It's a whole 12 attack better than the Emperor's Whip, dropped by one of the palette-swaps guarding Alent. Same special effect. As for the other treasure?



While it is, technically, strictly inferior to another Soul of Asura, that's still three people who can get +1 combo hits.

With that out of the way, let's look at the rest of the level.



Oh crap, it's a Manhandla!





Oh, it's just a palette-swap of the one boss who hasn't been palette-swapped yet.



Bigger stats than the one we fought back in the Virgin Forest. Also, this flower's Flower Laser isn't forest-elemental, like the other one's was.

It's better than yet another Gaia Battler, I guess?



It doesn't last very long. Taking off nearly two-thirds of its health with the opening volley of techs, then chain-comboing the remainder away will do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ3RQ6D5Ay4 (Polsy link)



He drops a decent pile of gold.



At least Liete gets a good level out of the deal.



Of course, in the very next battle, Justin decides to show her up, with an extra bonus +1 to HP.



While mopping up the stragglers, Feena pulls ahead of Justin in HP again.



Hidden in an alcove behind the boss is this little gem.



As well as a rope leading up to the next area. Whatever, I'll take it.

See you next time!