Part 51: Episode XL: Rock the Dragon

Welp. Should have seen this coming eventually. The hell do you want, Reaper? Even the eternal mid-boss Ramsus in Xenogears got something resembling a victory in any of his encounters. You’ve gotten punked three times now and the closest you came to success was Setsuna getting injured by a magic engine you just happened to be standing next to like a dipshit.


Music: The Last Mountain



Ugh...
*sigh*
...Again?
I did not expect to find you here.
You know... in retrospective... this idiot can teleport, huh?
Obviously.
And we had him at our mercy at one point and just let him go. Like dumbasses...
*frowns*
And then there was the whole floating island thing... You know, if we’d known about that earlier we probably could have just tied this dumbass up when we had the chance and had him warp us here, instead of wasting the last couple of weeks spent rallying supplies to make a catapult or finding an airship.
What would we do, Endir? Just take turns riding this guy to the Last Lands?
And what’s wrong with that? It’d be better than another frikkin’ fight...
Ahem...
*rolls eyes* Let’s just get this over with...

The party approaches the frozen throne.



Who is your master?
Howabout you just point us in the direction of him, so we can kick his ass too. You can just walk away, man. Frankly, it’s probably a more productive solution for everyone involved.
There is no need for you to know that... Soon you will be dead...
*jerking off motion* Uh-huh.

Reaper teleports off the throne to... three feet in front of the throne...



Why do you not fear total destruction? Why do you fight a battle with no future?
*shakes head* I have no need... for the future... for life... To fulfill my mission... is the only purpose of my existence... This battle is inevitable... I will destroy you...
*turns to Setsuna* Setsuna... was it...? It is time... to fulfill my promise... I shall kill you... last of all...



C’mon! Just try it, dammit!
Is that... a tree trunk...?
That’s right. This old man is going to bash your brains in with a tree trunk. Ain’t that right, Nidr?
Mhm! Damn straight!
Nidr, calm down. If we talk to him, I’m sure we can get through to him...
Of course we can’t! Nothin’s getting’ through to this guy! Right, Endir!?
Probably not...
Besides, I kinda wanna see how deep the vanished land is by punting this dingus’s head off the side of the island.
See, Setsuna?
Endir...
Hey, I was fully against letting this guy live last time and turns out—
He is right...
See! Even gothic lunatic knows the score.
*extends arms* Nothing will change my mind... Nothing will make me stop...
Setsuna... I can understand your wish to avoid combat.
......
But let me say this... In order to accomplish your mission as sacrifice... We have no choice but to leave this man’s corpse behind us. If you lose your life now, this entire journey shall amount to nothing.
*shakes head* But...
*draws his scythe* One of us... will be destroyed... That is our destiny...



Diplomacy has failed! Everyone but Setsuna is instantly ready to throw down...



...And even Setsuna shortly yields to the tides of war and draws her chakrams, instantly impaling both Aeterna and Julienne in the chest by mistake with their eight foot wingspan.



This... can’t be... happening...
*flips hair and teleports forward* Descendant of the sacrifice... Guardian of the people...


Music: Dance of Death



Time for the final battle against Reaper. Spoilers. I mean, we’re in the final region of the game. It kind of has to be the final battle against the reoccurring boss character. Reaper has been grinding since our last encounter and is now sporting a somewhat sizable 2260 HP. He’s also ditched all of his previous attacks in favor of newer varieties.



Reaper’s new primary attack is Black Hole which is... kind of just a gussied up version of Demi with a flashier animation. It has the same effect of drawing all party members close together so subsequent AOE attacks will hit everyone. And there’s kind of dick to be done about that if you don’t have attacks that alter character position (Setsuna has absolutely none ever and Nidr has a couple tied to really useless Techs.)





Cursed Slash is Reaper’s new physical attack of choice. The damage is comparable to Black Hole, but it will only hit two out of our three party members, tops. Most annoyingly, it can inflict Sap just as a dick move. Reaper is all about the petty dick moves.



Our first order of business in this fight is using Blowbeat. Though not for the usual locking down with Paralysis/Stun like many bosses. Reaper and higher level enemies have been shrugging that off fairly well for a while. No, what we’re hoping for is the much more easy to inflict Confusion. As a refresher, Confusion in IAS makes it so AOE magic attacks will also hurt the one casting ‘em (and their allies.) So in Reaper’s case, he’ll start doing 100-150+ HP of damage to himself every time he attacks. Which is about as much as we’d do with most of Endir or Nidr’s single techs. So that ain’t too shabby!



Setsuna is completely on healing duty every turn with Cure II. We really don’t want our party to fall below around 250 HP for the first half of the battle, since a good critical from Black Hole could be some real trouble.



After Reaper’s HP drops below around 33% health, he’ll start giving up on the other attacks and begin casting Dark Matter. Which was Magus’ ultimate shadow magic spell in Chrono Trigger. It’s not quite as impressive here, as it only targets a single party member despite the screen filling special effects. It does, however, do about 400+ HP of damage and will almost certainly one-shot whoever has it cast on ‘em. I had a fun time of musical chairs of someone being dead, someone reviving them, and the third person actually attacking Reaper for a good half dozen turns.





But even with that, it’s a pretty easy rhythm to keep the party in check long enough to style on this dipshit for a fourth time.



Unfortunately, we’re granted no experience for that battle. For you see, given this is Reaper’s final battle, it wouldn't be right to send him off without a second form...


Music: The Last Mountain



Following the battle, Reaper pops right back up like he has for every other encounter. But he doesn’t seem to be taking his latest defeat as well as he previously had. Indeed, he seems as though he’s been kinda in some bad shape this go around.



That trailer for the Tom Cruise remake of The Mummy with the fucked up audio is the funniest goddamn thing to me and I’m reading this scream with that same long Tom Cruise yelp from it.



What!? What on earth is happening!?
This doesn’t look good!
What’s going on!? A tremendous amount of magical energy is flowing into him!
That master of his... Is this his doin’!?
Hey, folks... Let’s just back up in case he like... explodes everywhere. I don’t know about you guys but uhh... I don’t want to be picking this guy’s gibs out of my mask...



Everyone backs the hell up. I might have wiped on my first attempt at this battle and the second attempt... well... Julienne and Kir took the backing up business a LITTLE too far... Observe below!



...Yeah. Kir and Julienne aren’t supposed to be clipping through the geometry. They usually don’t! But I’m happy it happened and I could capture it.



So is he gonna like just turn purple and yell a bunch?
...Was that what I was doing?
You swore a bunch and growled. That was... mostly it.
Oh... Well...


Music: Deadly Gamble







Yeah, so Reaper is a dragon now. Sure... Yeah, sure... Why not? Cool...



Setsuna, do you wanna have a civil discussion with this thing, too?
*frown* Alright, alright... Maybe we cannot talk about this...


Music: Dance of Death



Meet the Dysphormic Monster aka a goddamn dragon! But... it’s still Reaper. This is not at all as threatening a boss battle as Rhydderch or Burly Cheetahman whose name escapes me. He comes packing 4521 HP to the party. The immediate biggest threat is right at the beginning of the battle: we didn’t get a chance to heal between fights and our party is almost definitely in rough shape!





I’m going to immediately commit a JRPG player taboo and use a Megalixir to fully restore the entire party’s HP/MP and get us out of this pickle. B-but what if we NEED IT later, the people say in a hushed tone! Hi, hello. I’ve played this entire game before. This is the one time you absolutely need this immediately in the entire game because this is one of like two times there’s ever anything approaching a boss rush.





Once more, Blowbeat is an essential part of our arsenal just for the Confusion status. Since this idiot dragon will spend most of the battle tripping over its own feet, burning its tongue on fire, and dropping black holes on its feet like a dingus.





The black hole Reaper previously had is replaced by just a standard Demi spell. It does just about the same amount of magic and effect in battle. Just none of the bluster pretending it’s another attack.



Dragonic Tail is exactly what you’d expect a big dumb dragon to do. It spins around. Everyone gets hit by its tail. It hurts WAY more than you’d expect! But, with that confusion the moron dragon Reaper will also bean itself for 75 HP of damage. I like to think it bangs its tail on the sides of the room like a stupid moron.





Given how all of the attacks here are full party damage, and for quite a bit of it, Setsuna is on full time healing duty every turn. Nidr and Endir are doing the work dealing damage and lobbing Ethers at Setsuna occasionally to keep everyone alive.



Once Dragon Reaper falls below 50% damage he actually starts using the signature attack of a dragon: Dragonic Rage aka breathing fire. Somehow vomiting dark flames all over the party hurts far less than the dragon just doing a tail spin. Yet it hurts his confused dumbass far more since it’s technically a multiple hit encounter.





The Dysphormic Monster also silently gets a buff to power up his Demi to the next level. Which does just about the same amount of damage as the fire breath. How do you have a dragon and make its fire breath the most meh attack in its arsenal? I am calling the fantasy RPG cops, there is a crime being committed in this battle.



As long as the party survives the opening round of the attack, I feel like the dragon portion of the Reaper battle is easier than his human form. If only because he isn’t guaranteed to one-shot a party member every turn towards the end of the fight. Though we do have to be careful when finishing off the Dysphormic Monster.



Reaper is a sore loser and will perform Dragnarok... (UGH!) damaging the entire party for 200-250 HP of damage before he keels over. No warning for that and an unexpected critical attack can easily take off 400 HP of damage while Setsuna is in the middle of casting Cure. Not that I got a party wipe from that or anything. No sir!





Welp. That’s a wrap for Reaper. I wish I had more strategy for the final battle against the one major reoccurring villain but nope... You just kind of stay healed and beat it with Nidr’s tree trunk. Frankly, it’s a fitting end to Reaper’s arc.



Following its defeat, the Dysphormic Monster charges up one last time and morphs back into tryhard goth boy form.


Music: The Lone Reaper



I was created... to destroy... the sacrifice... This is... my only mission... My only reason... for living... I have no heart...
Then... why are you crying?
*shakes head* I do not know...
Cuz we whooped his ass?
*glares back at Endir*
Are these your emotions? Or are they the emotions of your master who created you?
*shakes head* They are not mine... But... My eyes are for my master to see... My ears, for my master to hear...
So your master feels everything you feel... And you feel everything he does...
Cool, he knows the ass kicking he’s gonna get later.
*glares* Could you not?
Is that it? So those tears... are your master’s tears?
*shakes head* I do not know... But... if they are... Then I wish I could have seen this world... for a little longer... This beautiful world... of falling snow...
*looks up* I wish I could have seen it... for my master...



Ha. RIP!



We had to defeat him, for the sake of our mission.
Nidr is correct. We still have a mission to fulfill.
And let’s be real here. I know you’re all better future for everyone song and dance but... F that guy!
*jumps* Yeah, fuck that guy!
Hey! Have some respect for the dead.
...?
Let us continue onwards, Setsuna.
*stands up and nods*
So he was created, too... Created to fulfill a mission...
Aeterna...
Talk about having buyer’s remorse...
...Endir.



There’s nothing to be done with this sweet looking frozen throne. You’d think Julienne at least would have some interest in it. But nah... Luckily, Reaper left behind a portal to the shadow realm before he died. Let’s check that out.



It’s like a hidden entrance...
Are we close now, then?
Yes, not long now...



C’mon, Aeterna... I think it’s time you started givin’ us some answers. What is it you’re tryin’ to do, exactly?
Nidr...
Yeah... I’m actually gonna agree here, what’s your deal?
Same. What’s up, lady? You have run out of mysterious origins dodging time here.
All right... I’ll tell you everything.
Pfft. Typic—wait what?
!
All right, then... Let’s hear it!



...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...Are you for goddamn real?!



Welp... Tune in next time when we enter the final dungeon and maybe Aeterna will actually explain what the hell is going on with her and all the information she clearly is withholding from the party. Or maybe she’ll just fuck off and say nothing again! Who knows! The march to finish I Am Setsuna continues...