Part 56: Episode XLIV: Genesis

Time to put an end to Endir’s quest. The letter Endir received Nidr snatched up and blurted the contents of aloud told Endir to head to the island to the south of the mainland. Well... okay... There’s two islands south of the mainland. Don’t give us a name or anything. Not like we have a map to reference it against even if you did.



It’s probably not the island where we left that guy to bleed out on a frozen lake. So that leaves Craigholm Island which contained the previously suspiciously empty Snowfield House. Let’s see if that area has livened up now that it is endgame sidequest time. Before we enter, though, I’m going to have the party scarf down that max HP buffing salad. You know... Just as a precaution...



Well, would you look at that. It’s uhh... what’s his face...? The masked mercenary guy from the tutorial. You know, the only person Endir has any history with in the game. I’m beside myself in shock that he’d be behind this little quest.



What the hell is this, old man? I’m kind of on a job, here... Uhh... Kinda...
......
Look, it’s complicated...
There is something I wish to talk to you about. You come in alone, Endir... The rest of you can wait in the airship. Don’t worry, this will not take long...
Well, all right...
*heavy frown* Please... don’t take too long. We... we REALLY do need to get back... I have no idea how long that barrier will stay up. Just... no more than a few minutes...



Everyone agrees to give Endir and Hapsper some privacy in his secluded snowfield hut. Scandalous.



What sort of story?
If this is the one about the nun, the banjo player, and the llama again... I’m GOOD, old man.
One that you may find surprisingly interesting... at least, I hope so.
I’m prepared to be disappointed.
*begins pacing* You have done well to gather each of the three powers inside the stone. I am truly impressed.
Well... you saw the airship, right? It took like forty minutes to try it out. By the way, does this thing do anything or have any value. You’re cool with me pawning it off, right...?
When I attempted to do so, it did not react in the slightest.
And I did not have a ship that could fly. It was an arduous journey across the continent taking months to accomplish... And still nothing happened...
Because you’re an old man.
As cold as ever, I see! I am confident in my strength and magical energy... But it seems the ancients did not consider me worthy.
Hey, I’m not knocking you, gramps. You’re a masked mercenary. We’re all badasses here! Just stating the facts. You’re old... You KNOW how those stupid ancient devices work. If you aren’t a 15-25 year old fit male swordsman or a buzzcut guy with an assault rifle, they aren’t giving you the time of day. Just how it is. Best you can hope for at your age is to get recruited to the party of the one chosen by the ancients in the second act. You should go talk to that scarred up idiot with the tree trunk I was traveling with... He knows the score.
Tell me... How do you think today’s world appears to the ancients?
Foolish.
I see... So that’s how things appear to you. Foolish...
”REAL dumb” would be my personal take. But you know ancient civilizations... You got to say it in the way a stuffy professor would speak.
Yes, that is certainly one way of looking at things. And why do you say that?
Because of humans and monsters.
And if we’re being real... The local economy... There’s been literally three merchants following my party around because we’re the only show in town doing anything. And there’s no inns on this entire continent. NONE! I’ve looked. Like these people have LITERALLY never fathomed the concept of charging for room and board for travelers to stay in villages. Foreign concept to ‘em. It’s ridiculous!



Hard to believe, eh? If it is true, perhaps humans and monsters once coexisted.
I guess... Not sure I’d want a pet that had poisonous blood and exploded into a puff of noxious smoke upon death...
*begins pacing again* Although, perhaps back then there were no concepts of “humans” and “monsters”... You see, Endir... I love this world... Not only the beauty, but also its ugliness... Not only the good, but also the evil... I love every part of this world...
*cocks eyebrow and looks around room* So were you hotboxing this cabin and I’m just not feeling it yet...? You know you don’t have to get all philosophical with me before offering to hit the pipe...


Music: Shrouded Fate



He was on the verge of death... as was the monster he had faced in battle. He had been hired to protect a village from monsters. In order to protect the people of this village, he sacrificed his own life.
Are you talking about Rick? I heard he got got. RIP.
When learning of his death, his client showed no sadness, but only concern for the future. Out of curiosity, I decided to try making a proposal to that client...



“Would you take that choice?” The client hesitated, but only for an instant. As he replied, a smile almost seemed to appear on his face...
*stamps foot* “Such a solution exists?” I felt like shouting out Oh, what baffling creatures humans truly are! A man who would sacrifice himself to protect the people from the monsters... And a man who would sacrifice the lives of a few to save the many... Which one are you, Endir?
Neither.
! But why? Why?
I’m a man who’d get the job done and get paid. And that ain’t either of those crummy options.
*shakes head* Ahem... I apologize... But humans truly are very strange creatures indeed... Depending on their circumstances and position, they possess entirely different viewpoints. They follow their instincts... yet they also oppose those instincts. They are strong... yet they are weak...
So which one are you?
Me...? I am someone who admires humans, but who was unable to become one...



Yes, I remember.
That was umm... Uhh... Heck... Was that the town of knights...? No... that had a way stupider name...
Floneia Citadel?
*snaps fingers* Oh! The walled town. Yeah, sure... What about it?
The way I see it, the citadel was ruled over by a very “human” man. He was prepared to sacrifice the lives of the few in order to keep the monsters at bay... You remember, don’t you?
Yeah. I’d not call him “human” to best describe him, though.
Oh?
Guy was a dick.
That is not a point I’ll refute.
No man can control the monsters... That is what you thought, is it not?
Of course.
I know there’s intelligent monsters. There ain’t a lot of ‘em...
Yes, of course... It is only natural to think that. I know the truth behind what happened... Why do you think that is? Well, it is because the lord made his deal with a monster who had been transformed into a human... The one he struck a deal with... was me.
OK.
You’re not upset at the reveal of my machinations?
That was months ago. I’m a professional. I’ve moved on. Did you see that goth dork with the scythe? Fought him four times. Killed him the last one. He got resurrected and joined my party. I was annoyed for like five minutes...
As a monster, I suppose you would say I am a disgrace... I yearned to become human... But you see, Endir, I find this life as a human so interesting... So very, very interesting... I love humans...
What a sorry excuse for a monster!
Like do you got a true form like the beetle boy...?
...The who?
Ergh... Ehh... Don’t worry about it.
Hehehe... You are a human I respect, Endir. I want you to help finish this...



And now, I intend to use all of my strength to destroy your future. I shall kill you, and I shall kill your companions... Then, I shall watch over this world’s destruction with a smile on my face...
No, you’ll die a monster’s death!



Me and the crew of misfits I’ve teamed up with, despite their looks, are PRETTY strong... mostly. Like, we just killed some sorceress chick that had locked the entire world in a time loop for decades and can pop out sapient clones of herself at will. We nearly one-shot her. Right now we’re procrastinating before fighting some world ending dark god or... something... Honestly, the details are fuzzy on that one. But, it’s strong, alright?
Let us go outside. I do not want my house to be destroyed, you see... as a human.

Endir and Hapsper take it outside...
Music: SILENCE



Then, I shall hand the ancient spritnite over to the creature in the Last Lands. I shall bear witness to this world’s demise in your place. Are you ready?
*draws sword* You need to ask?
Hehehe... You are a feisty one indeed, Endir! Then let us begin... This body may be old, but do not forget that I am a monster!
Yeah, yeah... So you gonna transform or what?
But I already have...
Uhh...?
*taps head* I never said this was a mask...


Music: Relentless Advance



You all just had to vote for Endir’s sidequest and one of the hardest boss fights in the game first, didn’t you? I had to go grind a half dozen levels for Endir to do this boss. Granted, there is a 5000 EXP a pop grind spot over at the western entrance to the ice drifts dungeon. It’s full of Spritnite Eaten Pengy variants that can be wiped out in a single turn by just using Blowbeat or any other all targeting dual-tech. But regardless, it’s a big ol’ pain in ass.

This fight is solo Endir and his food buffed 700 HP vs. Hapsper and his 5000+ HP. The odds aren’t strongly in Endir’s favor for this fight. For you see, Hapsper hits like a truck...







For you see, Hapsper is just... boss fight Endir. This is basically a mirror match. Hapsper possesses most of the same Techs as Endir. At least, the earliest ones he obtained. Cyclone, Blade Wave, Backslash. They’re all here and they all do at minimum 175 HP of damage and at max, nearly 275-300 HP. You see why we buffed Endir’s max HP before coming here. It makes the difference between having to heal every two attacks and having to constantly heal and being in a losing proposition the entire fight.

The one small thanks in Hapsper’s move set is that he does NOT possess Aura. A solo character boss fight against an enemy with 5x the HP and the ability to heal would be the shittiest thing a game could pull.





The absolute key to victory, to the point I don’t know you could win this battle without it, is Endir’s Battlecry. Normally, Battlecry only buffs Attack, Defense, and Speed for a single turn. It’s a set-up to wreck a target with a dual/triple tech. But with Momentum buff (helped by slapping a support Spritnite that greatly increased SP accumulation) it will also buff Evasion and Critical Attack rate while lasting for two turns for the base buffs and three for particularly Evasion.



That last part is SUPER handy since Endir has a chance to just outright no sell attacks. Any round we don’t have to recover our HP from Hapsper’s attacks is a round we can lay into the old man.





I briefly mentioned those endgame support Spritnites that gave MP and HP on attack. Yeah... those were items I was fixing to slam on Endir for this fight. The actual HP/MP gain isn’t THAT much. But it’s usually enough to offset the cost of most offensive Techs, which is extremely helpful when there is no extra bodies to be on Ether throwing duty. And any gained HP is welcome when you’re the solo fighter.



While Hapsper wasn’t completely rude using some monster variant of Aura, he hasn’t completely neglected learning support spells. Howl is his take on Endir’s Battlecry. Thankfully, it only buffs the rival masked mercenary’s Attack Power. But uhh...



That’s enough for him to nearly be doing 500 HP of damage for the next couple turns he gets. Before I grinded, this just straight up one-shot Endir even with some extra HP buff salad.





It’s nearly essential to have Battlecry’s effects on immediately at all times if we want to get anywhere here. And even then, I ended up using a couple Elixirs (GASP!) to keep up pace topping off HP and MP.





In the second half of the fight, when not absolutely ruining Endir’s day with Howl and whatever following Techs, Hapsper learns the joys of jumping sword attacks in spamming his equivalent of Endir’s Cleave for a good 200-250 damage. I’ll take that over the Howl + Backslash. Whoops it’s a critical that did 999 damage to Endir’s nuts, taking him out completely.



Before we finish off Endir’s secret monster mercenary comrade, he’s got one last bullshit move up his sleeve. Hapsper is a sore loser, as it turns out. So when defeated...



Hapsper’s final attack is Death Throes, which I thankfully had Battlecry up for since it hits for about 250+ HP of damage if it manages to hit with everything it has at the last second. No, this didn’t kill me once and yell an obscenity at a video game. Don’t be silly.





That’s it for Hapsper. I could have grinded 40k EXP in that spot I mentioned earlier in time it took to do this boss battle...

Music: ENDS



So you realized, did you?
You’re not much of an actor.
I am sure you knew all along... I have no interest in seeing the demise of this world!
I live in this world. Why would I want to see it end? That is, in your words, incredibly dumb.
You’d think that would be true of most people. And yet...
Amazing... Endir... You truly are worthy of the ancient spritnite... And you are worthy to entrust this life of mine to...



Hells yeah! It’s time to slam a cartridge in and get blown away by some Black Processing, boy!



Or not. Genesis is Endir’s ultimate Spritnite Tech. All of these character sidequests are in service of obtaining their ultimate Tech.







That move with the exploding sword that Hapsper pulled before keeling over? Turns out that was Genesis. It’s quite a powerful move in a game already lousy with OP special attacks.





Genesis is also a component in the Endir/Aeterna/Setsuna Triple Tech Coup de Grâce which... is literally just Grand Cross 2: The Quickening. Same exact animation and MP consumption., it just deals more damage by swapping out Endir’s Cyclone with Genesis.

But enough about that. Back to the dying tutorial man...



Then, and only then, will it be restored to its former glory... Its power shall guide your journey towards the future...



You have grown stronger... as a warrior... and more importantly, as a human... It seems... the most important things of all... are the bonds we make with others... I shall never forget that... Bonds... connections... What a truly... wonderful... thing...
BARF! *disintegrates*



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RIP.

Setsuna wanders up to Endir.



I’m sorry... I know we were supposed to stay in the airship, but I was worried... Is it over now?
*nods* Yes, it’s over.
*motions to body outline in snow* For him.
...Should I even ask...?
Nah. Not worth mentioning...
Thank goodness... Shall we go back to the airship, then?

The rest of the party wanders back onto the scene...



If you’re done, why didn’t ya tell us!?
Sorry, I just had a death duel with my mentor. I didn’t take into consideration it would inconvenience you folks being idle for 20 minutes. My sincerest apologies...
Don’t lump me in with these two, all right? I tried to stop them...
And Dingus just kind of follows everyone else around regardless of intent...
I sense a great power... It seems the energy inside the spritnite has been fused successfully.
Is that so... Then I am sure it shall aid us greatly.
Now everyone’s here...



Talk about impatient.
What!? We came ‘cause we were worried! Bah! Some thanks!
Didn’t I try to tell you? Endir doesn’t need you worrying about him.
See, clone girl knows the score.
AUGHHH!
*laughs*
*shrugs*
*blank stare*



And that concludes Endir’s side quest.

That stuff with Hapsper... really felt like something they probably should have just incorporated into the main plot instead of leaving it as an optional side quest. Having the guy from the tutorial show up later in the game as a minor villain would have at least gone a decent way in making the town specific story arcs feel like they weren’t just independent bullshit of the week. You could have stuck him at some point after Beetle Boy’s arc to continue the notion that the monsters actually have some agency and aren’t just mindless beasts.

A few of these side quests do feel like plot that ought to have been part of the core narrative and was just tied off in a semi-unfinished/awkwardly reworked fashion to side quests in order to keep 'em in. As I’m sure we’ll see later. But that’s one sidequest down. Six more to go. Tune in next when we see what’s up with Dingus on the side...






Video: Genesis Tech