Part 34: Rangle Mountains 2

Speaking of...

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Welcome back! Last time, we tried to wrangle the Rangle Mountains, but ran into a bit of an issue with the local wildlife. So let's try again, shall we?

First off, the entirety of the dinner conversations.





: When I first met you on the Steamer, I would never have thought that we'd be camping together like this.

: Ha ha ha. That's because you didn't have much confidence in me at first.

: Yeah, but that's because Justin's really still a kid.

: She didn't have any choice!

: Heh heh. But now I know I can count on Justin. Look how much he's done already. ♪



: Didn't we talk about this before? We're heading for Alent. The Dom Ruins is just a stop on the way.

: Alent? I've never heard of that place before.

: I hadn't heard of it until recently. Maybe it was the Angelou capital?

: But you can bet it'll be amazing!



: That's right, so where is Alent?

: We've got to go to Dom to find out!

: Maybe just to the End of the World.

: Wait a minute, Justin! No one's ever come back from the Misty Forest! You said "just" to the End of the World?

: Feena, you don't understand yet.

: There's no such word as "impossible" for an adventurer! We can do it!

: Justin....

: Your brave talk is inspiring me. You're right, we can do it!



: First we go to the Dom Ruins, then to Alent and, after that, to the End of the World!



: Uh-uh, I'm not tired at all!

: Hey, we're all adventurers, right? This sort of stuff's a cinch! ♪

: Oh, OK. I'm relieved, then.

: If you don't mind my asking, what were your lives like back in Parm?

: Justin was a real trouble-maker!

: Same as he is now.

: Feena, what were you like as a child?

: Huh?! Me?!

: Weeelll, hmm...

: I was always with my big sister.

: She was very kind to me.

: But two years ago, she left. She'd suddenly decided to join the military.



: You know, we saw several female soldiers at the Sult Ruins.

: I wonder if she was one of them.

: Wait a minute, Sue. Those girls were all ugly and mean. None of them could possibly be Feena's sister!

: Yeah, those three we saw were so mean.

: What about the one who was next to the blonde? She was quiet and pretty, too.

Now Sue, Mullen might not be the manliest, but there's no need to use the feminine "blonde" when describing him.

: Oh, yeah....



: Yeah, I guess....

: Thanks for your concern, Sue!

Whew. And if you try to leave early, you get yelled at. First, if you haven't finished Sue's dialog line...



And if you have finished Sue's, but not Feena's...



And that's it. Now back to your regularly-scheduled farcical attempt at pretending this game is easier than it is.



Or rather, a look at the actual Save Point hint text, instead of my usual, "Hey, some monsters resist physical attacks, so use magic or weapons specifically designed to kill them fuckers"-style recap.







Usually the hints are a little less coherent than that one.





Fuck you, Odd Birds.



So, last fight, I chastised myself for splitting my attacks instead of focusing each bird down. First thing I do in this fight is split my attacks instead of focusing each bird down. Why?



Keeping them both distracted allows for Sue to get in a turn before they do.



Justin rather enjoys Sue getting mace levels off of things that aren't him. Feena takes a few hits from the remaining bird, but nothing too bad.



And, in the next fight, Justin decides to show off W-Break.





Decent chunk of damage.



And one of the Cobras poisons Sue through her Earring.



While another ineffectually nips at Feena.

... Who is still using the armor she had on the Ghost Ship, now that I think of it.



So, something I haven't mentioned yet. If you kill an enemy on the first hit of a combo (as Justin and Feena both are about to do here)...



They will retarget the nearest enemy for the second attack. This can be annoying if the target they've switched to gets killed by someone else before they can get to it, but in this case it works out nicely.



Feena even took out the second snake.



Poison doesn't tick for much damage. The real annoyance is the stun. Especially on Sue.



This is actually a better place to spam Diggin than Merrill Road. More party members means it hits more targets, meaning more Earth XP per cast.



Not a whole lot to see, really.



Even in the kitchen gear, Justin can shrug off the snakebites.



Without defending, even.

Note that if those were Odd Birds instead of Spitting Cobras, he'd be properly fucked at this point. And yeah, this is technically after a Diggin', but eh.



Sue keeps on going after that next Earth level while Justin improves his strength and wit further.



Snake tries to jump at Justin, but Feena ain't having any of that shit and stabs it in the mouth. To death.



And here's why Sue wanted to hit Earth 3 so badly. Tremor is an AoE, similar in size to Howl, but earth-elemental and a Level 2 spell.

Tech-wise, she's got a fast, long-range single-target attack, a group heal, an AoE attack, and now spell-wise she has a small AoE, larger AoE, and defense buff.

She's basically a Red Mage.



The biggest downside to Tremor is that it's not Burnflame.

Then again, very few things are.



So yeah, Feena celebrates Sue's new spell by annihilating all of the enemies with nuclear hellfire.



So, fun fact about consumables out in the wild. You don't even have to pick them up and use them from someone's inventory. I however, do pick it up and stick it in Sue's inventory.



Well, shit.



And, just like that, Justin gets splatted before anyone gets a turn.

Basically, getting ambushed sucks.



The rest of the fight goes without issue, leaving me in a quandary. Do I reset again, forever sealing my shame as some asshole who gets beaten up by brightly-colored birds? Do I retreat back to town to rest at the inn, and let all the enemies respawn? Or do I press on, grabbing the treasure in there while trying to avoid the monsters?

In the end, I decided that the third option would be the most entertaining.



Bag of gold? Not worth Justin falling even farther behind in XP.



A lot of these paths lead to dead-end alcoves.



Hmm...



This nearby pathway has something, though.



Maybe it's a Resurrection Potion?



Nnnnnope. +3 Strength is nothing to sneeze at.



Aha! That's not an impassible slope at all!



Ahh, a generic item-type treasure. Still, might be use-



-ful...

Yep, despite having a field graphic specifically for Mana Eggs, this one here uses the normal treasure model.

This was the main treasure I was hunting around for in here. Now that I've gotten it, I have no excuse not to slip away...



... back to the World Map. As you can see, we've unlocked the Dom Ruins, but we should probably rest and heal up first.



Skipping out on the save point recovery does make the game a bit more interesting, tactically. SP can be recovered readily (if slowly) enough, but MP can't be healed without items or resting. Plus, running back to the inn every time you need to rest slows down the pace of the game, encouraging you to go dungeon-delving while not at full strength.

Granted, during most dungeons, you'll stop to make camp every so often, which fully heals you anyway, so it's not exactly the most difficult game to do this sort of challenge on.

Anyway, that'll be it for this update. A little short, but I can hardly rush into the Dom Ruins without letting you guys distribute the cool gear, can I?