Part 24: In Which Will is a Tourist

“Well, I kind of knew but I didn’t want to tell anybody else I’d set the whole thing in motion. That day, Lilly didn’t come back to her room. When I awoke, Lance had disappeared…”



“Fine, I’ll go.. wait… what’s this in my pocket?”



“I’m going to the Great Wall of China. I intended to keep it secret, but I told Will just in case… I’m putting this letter in his luggage, but he probably won’t notice.”

“If I’m reading this letter I noticed, you jackass.”

“The townspeople say there’s some kind of cure for my father at the Great Wall. It’s a long journey, but I’d go anywhere if it would help him. Don’t worry about me…”



“Ouch. Yeah, I’d better go after him.”



I’ve mentioned this briefly before, but we’ve actually got the ability to go backwards at this point to the Angel Village. This entire region functions as a interconnected web, which means that for once any Red Gems or other items we miss in a given area aren’t lost forever.



That… that isn’t the Great Wall.



Great Wall of China Theme
Great Wall of China Gameplay

The Great Wall of China is our next dungeon, and as you’d imagine it’s pretty much a series of corridors. There’s some depth in having multiple floors, but it’s pretty much a case of going from left to right and destroying everything in the way. The game even describes it as “a corridor stretched to the distant horizon.”



All that said, there’s a load of enemies in the immediate vicinity scattered across different floors so we need to get started.



First up we’ve got the Archer. They’ve got 25 HP (most bosses we’ve seen thus far have 40) and do exactly what you’d expect given the name. You can block their arrows using telekinesis, so they’re not that much trouble if you’re on the ball. A neat trick of their firing animation, captured here, is that their bows briefly invert. High tension bows can do this, but they took the lazy way out here and just flipped the bow.



The next enemy might actually be two, because there are two nearly identical enemies with a very slight different. Eyesores and Fire Bugs both fly around and throw flames. Eyesores spray fire in arcs to the left and right, with the flames sticking where they land. Fire Bugs drop a single flame that expands to a row of flames. They’re pretty easy to deal with as long as you’re patient.



Of course, it’s not as straightforward as that. There are some barriers forcing us to go down and then back up to proceed.



Naturally, the entire area is stocked full of enemies taking advantage of the narrow confines to pin us down. Clearing the first screen gets us a Defense boost, but on the way…



“Great, that answers the question as to where Lilly went. How the hell did they get past all the enemies?”



There’s also some standard traps, even f they don’t make any sense. There’s not enough space for those spears to withdraw into the wall, for Gaia’s sake.



“Oh, I bet you think you’re so clever. We’ll see about that…”



Naturally, getting around the ramp we just saw involves taking an enormous dive through a vertical shaft all the way to the bottom and then working your way back up. And at the bottom…



Another note from Chinese history. The basement is full of Terracotta warriors. The twist is that some of these statues turn into archers and take advantage of the way you’re stuck in a narrow corridor.



On the way up we’ve got another Red Jewel to pick up. It’s the only one in the Great Wall, and it’ll grant us a nice upgrade back in town.



A new enemy awaits on the way up, the Asp. They’ve got very little HP, but they’ll dart right at you and then clamp on. You have to run back and forth to get them to let go, but it’s easier to just leave the room and then come back.



“Y’know, normal people would have just left bread.”



Just south of that clue is a shooting gallery, with us as the target.



As Will we can’t really do much, so the solution is to enter and exit through various doors to find this switch and open a pathway to the archers. After that, they’re fairly simple to deal with.



“Guys… I’m over here. Y’know what, never mind. This is about to get REALLY ugly for you.”



“And as for you…HAHAHAHAHAHA!”



Other than a little gauntlet of spears that are fairly easily dodged, we’re about halfway through the dungeon.



“Are you looking for Lance? I’ll go with you!”

“That’s probably a good idea, since he’s all kind of… wait, how did those necklace fragments get here if you were behind me?”

“Ha ha. It’s been a long time since I borrowed Will’s pocket. Well, let’s go.”

“…I am so not going to tell Lance about this.”

Next Update: Resolution and bug juice.