Grandia Part #30 - Boss: Chang

Part 30: Boss: Chang

Extra special early update!

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Welcome back! Last time we braved the hidden passage through the sewers into the church.

The gold is fairly obvious, and there is a door visible there.

... Said door is just decorative, unfortunately. The save point hint is "sometimes your turn comes up but you have no time to execute an attack. So defend."

Fortunately, the boxes are stacked up nicely to provide us a staircase.

: Uh-oh! Looks like they've started already!

.... Preeeeeetty sure that first part is supposed to be Feena.

: to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?

: Oh yeah! Oh yeeeaahhh! You betcha, uh-yup yup yup!

The text boxes cover it up, but Feena's strapped to a ball and chain here.

Also, I just noticed the Joule Foundation logo all over the church. Interesting....

: Now, if anyone objects to this wedding, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.

: MMMMM! NNNGGG!

: What's going on here! Father, this isn't right!

: Umm... and now... the groom may kiss the bride and be forever united in holy....

: MMMN! AAAAAHHH!!

: OK, Feena, here's where we kiss. I'll do the kissing. All ya hafta do is pucker up! ♥

: MMMM! NNYYAAHH!!

: Hey, it's OK, uh-yup yup. I'll kiss you gently. ♥ Look. ♥ I'm holding back... ... uh-yup yup!

: That creep, Pakon! I'm putting a stop to this right now!

: Justin, we can go this way! Let's hurry!

: Let go of Feena right now! If you get even one drop of your snot on her, I'll beat you to a pulp!

: Uh-yuh? Uh-yuhhp?!

: Yyuucckkk!

: Let Feena go, Pakon! Or I'll bust up this whole wedding!

: That's right, Pakon! A wedding should be a bride's dream come true! This is a sham and we won't allow it!

Sorry, I'm just distracted by the Sam Fisher goggles the priest is wearing.

: Master Chang! Come get them! Come on!

Motherfucker, he was not there ten seconds ago!

He also causes the music to restart. Guess it plays separately for each dramatic entrance?

: Ha! I invited Master Chang just in case something like this came up, uh-yup yup yup!

: Oh, it's you! I'm not letting you get me again!

And Chang tries his hand at a Shao Khan impression before the boss battle begins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFCW8wAlSWY (Polsy link)

As always, skip down to "fight ends" if you don't want to read the transcription.

So, right off the bat, I'm still wounded from the random encounters on the way here.

Fortunately, Sue has enough SP to lead us off with a Rah-Rah.

The big issue with Chang is that he's quick. Quicker even than your characters, unless you've been training up Wit.

The other big issue with Chang is that his basic attack is a three-hit combo.

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't use any spells during the walk over. The reason for that was to save my MP for the boss, and hopefully squeeze out a Fire level for Sue.

Burn!, even at level 1, does a decent chunk of damage, especially if you can get a counter with it.

He's not far along enough on the IP gauge to tell what he's using, but it's being aimed at Justin.

V-Slash does a good chunk of damage.

I'm sure each of you is thinking of a joke to go with this right now.

This is how the IP gauge looks the frame before Chang recovers from the stun.

This is how it looks when he hits the Com marker. Notice how he's farther ahead of Justin than he was before.

He opts for a physical attack, and Justin gets to input his command before the first hit connects. Choosing anything other than Defend will make him eat a counterattack, while blocking will reduce the damage he takes. No-brainer, right? Hell, this is literally the situation the save point just told us about.

Unfortunately, while Defend doesn't take any time to charge, it still takes a couple frames to get into the defensive position, and Chang was just a bit too fast.

So, Justin can take one more unblocked hit before dying, and is currently in the middle of a combo. Too bad, hope Sue can take him on her own, right?

Not quite.

It's risky, but there's a bit of a delay between his attacks. Sue launches a Puffy Kick, hoping to cancel him out of the attack and deal counter damage. At the very least, if it goes off in time, it'll buy Justin the time he needs to stand up and block.

Once again, it comes down to frame-level timing. Fortunately, special moves like Puffy Kick and V-Slash stop time during their animations, meaning it's often better to use them to interrupt enemies once they charge up more quickly.

Eh, good enough.

Defending is crazy, dropping incoming damage to 1/3 and similarly resisting any status ailments that might be added by the attack.

Had Sue attacked instead of Puffy Kicked, healing wouldn't be out of my reach for the rest of the battle. Oh well. She can still burn him.

Justin goes for a Critical to try and cancel his Spin Kick. Fortunately, it's aimed at Sue.

Doesn't cancel, but delays his turn enough for Sue to defend.

That's just not appropriate.

Another benefit of blocking is that Sue doesn't get staggered if she blocks an attack.

V-Slash still hurts.

Crap, he's charging something.

And the Burn! spell failed to cancel it.

Ahh, Tornado Punch. Targeting Justin. Even if he blocks, he'll take more than 4 damage. Hopefully, Justin can get the V-Slash off in time.

Chang hits the Com point while Justin charges....

... And decides to abandon his assured kill in favor of blocking.

This, right here? This is the turning point of the battle. This is where it went from "Uphill battle to wear him down before I die with limited healing" to "point and laugh as my chances of losing dwindle to nothing".

True, my damage output drops to a third of what it was.

But he's running low on HP, and Defend is a long action. How long?

Justin gets another turn while Chang is still defending.

And Justin gains another axe level.

(Un)fortunately, Chang's defend wears off before Sue can get a second attack. Good because more damage. Bad because Justin is in danger again.

And with that, Sue's more or less sealed the deal. Even if Chang takes out Justin, she can do enough damage on her own to finish him off.

96 HP, minus however much Justin can knock off with a combo.

Justin has really been putting those axe levels to good use.

If you look carefully, you'll notice his current HP has gone up by one, from the axe level earlier.

If Justin can do 51 damage with his second swing, he can end the fight right here and now.

Seems the 45 was just an outlier, sadly.

Sudden death. Justin or Chang, the next one to get hit loses. Sue queues up a Burn!...

It's not looking good...

Crap!

... Or not! Saved by frame-level timing again!

... I make a big deal of it, but since the timing is almost completely removed from player control, it's mostly just "I got lucky".

The spell brings him down to -26 HP which is more than sufficient to end the battle.

With Justin still alive.

Chang, being a human and not a monster, doesn't explode into coins. He just kinda... stays down.

I'd also like to take a moment to point out that the purple-haired girl wearing a pink dress, pirate hat, bamboo armor, carrying a turtle shell shield, and with a flying creature nesting in her hair is the least-weirdly dressed of the group. Y'know, compared to the purple gi top, boxing gloves, ankle wraps, white hair bow, and no pants that Chang sports, or Justin's Worn-out Kitchenwear Extravaganza, or the Night Vision Priest.

Don't even get me started on "Even clowns find my outfit ridiculous" Pakon.

... Actually, I think "bride's veil, cloth gag, and ball and chain" is less odd than Sue's getup. Nevermind.

Good chunk of EXP, but no gold. Maybe because he had no pockets to rummage through for valuables?

Sue's about halfway to Fire 2, which is kind of an important skill level for her for reasons I'll get into when we accidentally stumble across them.

And Justin's enjoying those delicious, delicious +1's. And the +2's.

That... that is a forceful jet of snot, there.

: It was messed up from the beginning! What kind of wedding is this, anyway?! You took Feena and forced her into it!

They had, like, eight pixels to work with, and they still changed out Pakon's face to resemble his crying portrait.

I think. Either that or he's gone squinty-eyed and is sticking out his tongue. Also, if you look closely, you can see Chang on the floor behind him.

: OK, Feena! No wedding, no pass! So are ya gonna give it back?

: ...

Yes, technically the line is "... ......" but cutting out superfluous line breaks and ellipses is a burden I must bear, for the sake of the readers.

I've also been awake for the past, like, 32 hours so if my ramblings seem a little more rambly than usual, that'd be it.

: I'll forgive you if you change your mind now. So, dear Feena, come fly into my arms, uh-yup!

: Feena! Come on! Let's get going!

: Feena!

: A-ha! She can't do it, uh-yup! She knows if she gives up that pass, she'll never have another adventure.

: Pakon, here. Take your silly old adventurer's pass. I don't need it anymore.

: Wha...? What are you saying, uh-yup?

: ~~"This train we're on don't make no stops!"~~ "An adventurer's as free as the wind."

: Feena!

Yes, the sun shines in through the window like Feena's epiphany is what it takes to defeat Dracula or something.

Fun fact: Feena has more portraits than Justin and Sue combined.

: No one decides where the wind blows. This pass cannot bind the soul of a true adventurer!