Part 19: Day 52-54: Solitude

Today we're going to do the optional missions. We're not going to actually progress the story despite this being a day with a title.

Music: Sacred Moon


Take this. It should serve you well.



This is basically just like doublecast but for levels instead of magic.



So we just jumped from level 5 to level 9! The Thunder Finish is from Chrono Gear+Ability Unit. It gives a chance of jolting enemies with the finisher. Useful but not really necessary.



These are the missions we're going to be doing. The bonus gauge will double all mission clear rewards.



It seems that Poison Plant has been demoted from being a miniboss.

Music: Lazy Afternoons
Music: Sinister Sundown


That's a warm welcome.





We found the Poison Plant in the next area. I actually got the Headbutt attack this time.



Bulky Vendors always drop something besides Munny. That something is random, though, so you can't farm it.

Music: Tension Rising




The Tailbunker can charge forward. It's a very quick attack but it's useless when it starts so far up and nowhere near Roxas.



It can also charge at Roxas. This one is even quicker than before. Both of these do low damage, though. Like only 1/8th of Roxas' HP.



It can also do a back flip. You won't get hit as long as you're not in a middle of a combo when it does this. It also does low damage. To be fair, we just jumped up 4 levels.



It can land with a shockwave. Meh.



Finally, it can shoot fireballs. I actually have to dick around to show it since it dies very quickly with a Limit Break.



Music: Lazy Afternoons
Music: Sinister Sundown


Blazing Shard and Panacea respectively. There's also Minute Bombs around if you want to collect Hearts.

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


Only the rewards are doubled. On to the next mission!



Music: Arabian Dream


Oh, it's THAT kind of mission.



There's no emblem in the Agrabah Gate. I guess it's so we can prepare ourselves.



Potion and Ether respectively. There's no Heartless in this area, so we can leisurely grab these.



The Agrabah Street, though, definitely can't be leisurely traveled. We have to collect those emblems. How many are there, you ask?



11 in this area. And there's a second area with 5 more. And you have to collect all of them with the green ring intact to complete this mission fully. Collect one without the green ring and you'll have to restart.

It's not actually that difficult, though. Just don't kill the Heartless unless there's no green ring anymore. The emblems are placed close to each other so it's easy to get them with the ring intact.



There's some annoying ones, though, like the one near the west bridge. This picture is me failing to get it.



And there's one in the air. Miss it, and you'll have to kill a Heartless since you won't be able to get back up in time. Oh, and there's only 1 Fire Plant up there. Did I mention that Heartless doesn't respawn after death?



Collecting all emblems in this area with rings intact gives us our Mission Complete. Still not full, though, since there's more in The Palace.





Potion and Potion. The second chest is kinda hidden by the ring. You can also barely see the emblem way up in the top right corner that requires another leap of faith.
There's 1 Fire Plant up there with another one just behind the area transition. Did I mention that the rings persist throughout the areas? At least the rings won't appear until we go to the areas with the emblems (Agrabah Street in this case), so we can explore the initial area (Agrabah Gate in this case) freely.

You see the shadow in the second picture? I didn't. It's a fireball that hits Roxas after that picture was taken.



Despite all my complaints about this, I actually enjoy this kind of missions. They're actually kinda fun and a break from the normal combat. It feels great when you collect them all by using your movement abilities, especially later when we get glide. Even searching for them isn't that hard since there's big green rings telling us where they are. You don't even have to bother with the rings if you just want to finish the mission normally.
Not in Neverland, though. Fuck emblem collecting in Neverland.

Oh, and since we've collected all emblems here, let's begin harvesting Hearts.

Music: Crossing the Finish Line


There's a "X2" showing up to show that the rewards have been doubled. Usually it blocks the item name which is why I didn't show it last time.



Music: Rowdy Rumble


Next mission is the Deserters mission again. They're in The Palace. There's some treasures here, but...I forgot to collect them before finishing the mission.



They spawn 8 at a time instead of 5 like last time. And there's 16 of them.

Blizzard works pretty well since it can hit multiple at once. Limit Break still works well. Air combos actually work extremely well since just 2 hits means that we reach the finisher more quickly.



It's over pretty quickly.



Ether.



Back in the Agrabah Street, we have ??? (Can't reach) and Potion. I'm starting to see why Demyx doesn't bother collecting these...



And there's no ice cream or clock tower this update!

New reports:



The Tailbunker report just screams And we didn't actually see Roxas at the clock tower despite what's written in the diary.