Grandia Part #63 - East Misty Forest 1

Part 63: East Misty Forest 1

Eh, Luc Village is more pragmatic than anything.

Although even the assholes come around after the statue incident.

Also: Almost caught up to our current position with the NPC Chatter updates. Tentative deadline is by Monday.

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Welcome back!

Last time, we headed out into the Misty Forest, on our way to the End of the World.

"Hey, sometimes you can't just go in the direction the compass tells you is the exit."

Yeah, more getting lost in the woods. At least this time there's some good loot. And a lot of gold.

And palette-swaps of literally every enemy that was in the previous forest section. Seriously, we just met the bottled ghost dudes, and we're already getting a stronger version.

Dodos are birds that are not rainbow-colored, and so pose no real danger. They drop the confusion-curing item, though, so that's nice?

For reference, this was from a single Shockwave.

"Hmm, players might get stuck here, even though we've been generous with the save points and they can backtrack to the village to heal up."

"Stick a group-healing item in a treasure chest."

So, this clearing is a bit of a trap. It's got gold and Cholla flowers.

It's also got enemies on all sides.

I guess it's worth mentioning that the Gas Clouds seem to take more damage from physical attacks than magic ones? Or maybe Justin just hits harder than Burnflame does.

Feena knows which stats actually matter.

Killer Trees have two moves. "Grapple Nut", which deals a small amount of damage and lowers movement, and one called "Combo Attack", wherein they cast Tremor then go punch someone.

Not as dangerous as the Mist Guards, in other words. Hell, they even have lower defense.

These guys count as "nebulous" for purposes of the Mist-Cracking Whip's extra damage. Not that it particularly matters here, but it's the thought that counts.

Sue gains a level of bows, and Puffy learns to breathe fire.

No, I don't know how that works either.

It's a powerful, fire-elemental AoE attack. Basically Burnflame, only costing SP instead of MP.

In all fairness to Game Arts, this map does a good job of explaining why nobody who wanders in without a mist-clearing nut ever makes it out.

Def-loss, learned three levels after Tremor, is a level one Earth spell that is basically the anti-Diggin'. Reduces the defense of all enemies. Smarna weed in spell form.

There's... uh... there's not much else to say about it, really.

The animation for it is just Diggin's played in reverse with a palette-swap.

Before too long, we reach the second area.

I'm onto you bastards.

Mist Guards can eat all of the shit.

... On second thought, maybe it's a bad idea to throw around giant pillars of flame in the middle of a thick forest? Just an idea.

Shit, I didn't have enough time to spend all my MP.

Whew, that was quite a day time to turn in, g'night ev-

Oh. It's one of those dinners. Okay.

: Even though the mist has cleared, I can't tell at all how far we've come. When we saw the End of the World from the mountain, it looked so close. It seems like we'll never reach it.

: We've come a long way, I'm sure. It's just a little farther, Sue. Can you do it? If you thought the End of the World looked awesome from the God of Light place, wait till you see it close up!

: Your eyes look different when you talk about adventures. OK, I'll hang in there if you will. ♪

: I still can't believe that we're on an adventure in the Misty Forest, heading toward the End of the World. And it's a REAL adventure! I never felt this way on those silly Adventurers Society adventures.

Cold, clammy, and with a rock in the small of your back?

: How far do you suppose we are from New Parm? I can't see the Luc Village lights.

: Whoa, your voice just sounded like your sister, the soldier. What's her name...? Oh yeah, Leen.

Feena begins to have second thoughts about having those refried beans for dinner.

: I never thought we would meet her again like this. My sister was so kind to me.

: Also... she said she was looking for the Spirit Stone. I wonder what that's all about...?

: ... ... Hey, cheer up, Feena! I'm sure there's a good explanation.

: Yeah. You're right! After all, Leen isn't a bad person. No, the guy giving orders is evil!

It would be easy to make a "Yeah, the motherfucker's named Baal" joke, but Justin hasn't met him yet.

So instead I'll go with the "Justin's on-board with the people in the thread who want to punch Mullen" one, instead.

: So, the soldier who dropped the key, was that Leen? In that case, do you think she did it on purpose?

: Hmm... I hadn't thought of that. Now that you mention it, I'm not sure if it was on purpose or not.

: I'm sure she did it on purpose. After all, she's Feena's sister. She wouldn't be a bad person. ♪ Feena shouldn't be so worried.

What Sue doesn't know is that Leen is kicking puppies at this very moment.

I haven't been able to take a JRPG seriously since I found out about the "text boxes containing nothing but ellipses actually mean flatulence" thing.

Seriously, it's ruined things even more than replacing Important Key Terms with "Dracula(s)".