Part 29: Hope Conquers All

Chapter 28 – Hope Conquers All

We go back to Demiurge Tower, right to the bottom, where the big doors block our path. We place the gems we gathered from the Wicked Crystals in their sockets, triggering a scene…



“Yeah…We’re at the end of the tower, so this’s gotta be it…”

“The Source Forge is in there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah…And I bet HE’S in there, too…Avalon!”



“Come on! Don’t wimp out on us now! We’ve come THIS far! We’ve just GOT to win now!!”



“The entire world’s riding on this battle.”

“We can do it! We’re taking our world back! And making it out of this alive!”






Now Playing – God of the Evil Ones

We cut to Darakin.




Everyone’s gathered outside to watch the black sun. We can recognise Sabrina and her family, but also Adventurer Miura happens to be here.

We soon cut back to Avalon.



“We’re NOT gonna let that happen!”




While everyone else is determined and resolute, Maya’s got her worried face on.



“Look!! The Source Forge isn’t glowing anymore!...Don’t tell me…!”

“That’s right….My own Supreme Origin has taken the power of this Source Forge and made it its own! It’s taken its memory, too.”



“The Source Forge wanted the world to be filled with fine, worthy beings. And so the life that emerged continued to evolve. But then that evolution started to move in the wrong direction…Something happened that was never meant to be. Beings with wills of their own were born into this world!”

“And what beings were those, exactly?”



Avalon’s big motivation is “I hate humans because they’re FREE”. Woo.



“They became confused, they fought, they killed….They couldn’t live without hurting others. Humans are the ruin of this world!”

“No! You’re wrong!....Maybe humans DO fight and hate each other sometimes….But they help each other, they share kindness and warmth with each other, too!”

“That’s right! You make it sound like human beings are the bad guys here! But don’t you think what YOU’RE doing is a whole lot worse?!”

“What you haven’t realized yet is that every living creature in this world has its own will. We all depend on the world for life! Without this world, life wouldn’t exist!”

“…Why is it you can only see things from the point of view of human beings? We Mystics were born into this world to create a new era! None of you seem to realize yet what you were destined for…”




“….and create a new, perfect world!”



“I upset the balance of the Source Forge and made that black sun appear. Soon the Eclipse will cover this world and destroy it!”



“Even if you ARE a Star Shaper like myself, how can you save the world, now that the Source Forge’s lost its power? I see you’ve brought the sacred stones with you. But they won’t do you any good now! This world WILL be destroyed…”

“….We won’t let that happen!”



“I love every part of this world…human beings, nature, everything!”



“If you say you’ve stolen the Source Forge’s power, then I’m gonna get it back!”



“You still don’t seem to understand. You may be a Star Shaper too, but I have both my Origin’s Supreme Power and…”



“…And now, I’ll let you experience for yourself that Power of Creation I took from the Source Forge!!”




Alright, time for the final battle! It’s sure to be an epic showdown, so strap in, and-




Oh. I guess we were too overpowered for him. Cue credits?




Oh.

“Break my body as many times as you like, but it’s no use. I’ll come back to life every time!”











”You see, Avalon, you haven’t realised something: I’m COCKY Lang. Know what that means? I’m too fucking COCKY to think I’d ever lose to ANYONE!”






“What?! What IS this blinding light?!”



LIGHT OF HOPE: “I am the will of all living creatures that inhabit this world…And I am their power!”



“The sacred stones must’ve heard our prayers! They KNEW we didn’t want to lose this world!”



“Yes! Now is the crucial moment! We must make a desperate effort!”



“Now might be our best opportunity to win, Sharon! …No, it might be our ONLY opportunity!”

“You think we’ve got a chance, huh? Good enough for me! I made up my mind a long time ago that when I die…it’s gonna be surrounded by countless treasures! No way I’m gonna die in a place like this!”



“…The world hasn’t come to an end QUITE yet. And I swear on the pride of my tribe, we’re NOT going to let it happen!”



Yes indeed, in the mother of all Deus Ex Machinas, the collective will of all living creatures has showed up to take away Avalon’s god powers. The anime levels have just fucking skyrocketed into the stratosphere.

“…It can’t be…! …Is this Power of Hope really suppressing my own power…?”





“Everything should be according to MY will…! Does the world itself really have a will to survive…? Impossible….!”



“Every creature in this world, everything that possesses life, has a will of its own! Every last creature, great or small, holds the will to live! It has an inner spirit! And as long as we have that will, that DRIVE, we will FIGHT!”






Now Playing – God’s Fist

This is it, the real deal. Avalon won’t be regenerating after a loss here, so it’s going to be an epic contest…



Or we could just kill him in one round.

With end game characters, Avalon is not a threat. He is weaker than his Dream Match counterpart and far weaker than Dream Stiel.

Normally I’d just leave this be, since most boss fights aren’t interesting enough to forcibly show off their whole repertoire, but this is the final boss. We ought to at least see what he’s capable of.

Hence, I’ve done 2 things: I’ve gotten clips to show off his attacks, and I’ve recorded a second video where I rushed to the end and fought him at around level 55, just to give an idea of what Avalon is when he’s kind of challenging.

Without further ado, let’s jump into Avalon’s attacks.




Rowanaut, where Avalon just kind of smacks the person with his fist. Keep in mind I just had the characters block for all of this, so it’s not representative of how hard he hits normally.




Lavernak, where Avalon inflicts petrification on someone. Lang had anti-petrify for this fight, so he Avalon wastes his time here.



We’ve seen Elzebreault already, back at Phorchoon. It’s just that but weaker, hitting for maybe 2500 odd when you’re not blocking.






Wouldn’t be much of a final boss if he didn’t whip out his Supreme Origin to blast us. Again, blocking, so the damage isn’t representative of the real deal.

Avalon also has an “attack” called “Sebskwel” that negates buffs, but it’s not very interesting. You’ll see it in the harder video. Given I’m not even using buffs Avalon can dispel, him using this attack amounts to a wasted turn. I can’t see anyone relying on buffs at this point in the game.

No matter what happens, Avalon really isn’t that hard to beat, even when I restrain myself intentionally. He goes down like a wimp.

But this isn’t over yet, for you see, this isn’t even Avalon’s final form.



“This pain…it is proof that I am still unable to let go of my humanity, my weakness…”



”What are you trying to do!?”

”I reject my humanity, Lang!”





The anime levels have just pierced the heavens.





And they’re only climbing higher. Avalon has just fused with his Origin in order to create the most terrifying and intimidating enemy we’ve faced to date….



Now Playing – Unique Person’s Banquet

Or not. I could have come up with more intimidating enemy designs as a damn child.

Avalon’s fused form is known as the “Infinite One”. He is definitely stronger than regular Avalon, and yet, he’s still little challenge for an end game party.



The first thing you might notice is that like many enemies before him, Infinite One halves regular damage done to him. So just smacking him with Art combos isn’t going to get you too far.

However, it turns out that Variable Arts aren’t mitigated against him. That ends up being my primary damage dealer with my end game party, as Mystic Arts are only usable when damaged. Our end game party is not easily damaged by Infinite One’s attacks.

But let’s talk about his attacks, shall we?





Destruction Fist is the sole exception to what I said before: regardless of the circumstances, it will reduce a character’s HP to 1.




This is Infinite One’s answer to “Sebskwel”. As I’m still not using buffs, this is a free turn for me. At least the name isn’t gibberish this time.




Like Lavernak, this attack causes petrification. Also like Lavernak, Lang had anti-petrify.




This is can actually be really bad, because if you have no defense against bewitchment and he snags one of your better party members like Sharon or Lang, they can do a lot of damage to each other. I could see this ruining a run.




In regular circumstances, Lightning Purge is said to be Infinite One’s most damaging normal technique, hitting as hard as 3500.







This is Infinite One’s ultimate attack. When used on a less capable party, it’s the perfect set up for Mystic Arts.

Infinite One also has an attack called “Silver Scythe”, which is a fairly bland melee attack. I’m not sure I ever saw him use it, despite going over this fight multiple times, even in the one where I just let him attack.

Our rushed party does get knocked around a lot, but they get the job done. Mystic Arts are still stupid overpowered, and all we need is about three of them to take down Infinite One.

However, do you remember, all the way back in Chapter 0, one of the first items I got? The Point Card? It builds up points as you make purchases, and we sure made a lot of purchases in this game.



The damage caps at 99999, but it’s almost a third of Infinite One’s HP. As you can see from the greyed out name, this kills him in my rushed run. I felt it was fitting, as testament to the Infinite One’s infinite failure.

Click here to see my end game party make Avalon look like a complete chump.

Click here to see a rushed fight where I mildly struggle, also see some of Avalon’s attacks.





Holy shit, we’re really doing this.



“And of course, hope has kept me going.”



“That’s why I won’t lose to someone like you, someone who got drunk on his own power and lost his soul!”



(This is it. You’ve hit rock bottom, Avalon. You’re dying as some punk gives you a friendship speech. I should’ve listened to Velna and just killed the bastard ages ago…)



I asked you to remember something Lang said after beating Velna. He lamented how they couldn’t just come to an understanding. Everyone displays a strange level of sympathy for her.

None of that is present here, despite Avalon and Velna sharing their characterization for the most part. Lang knows this: he saw Avalon’s tragic backstory personally. He should know better than anyone that Avalon probably comes from the same place of hurt and rage that Velna does.

Instead, this whole final sequence paints Avalon as nothing other than a power crazed psychopath. That’s not unfair, given he IS more than a bit nuts by now, but no less than Velna was. Velna only stopped talking about all the new world crap after getting her ass kicked.

Lang and Avalon’s connection was played up from the start of the game, but here at the end, they don’t try to make anything of it. Lang just chides Avalon for being a generic villain. It’s really quite disappointing.

Anyway, the boss fight is effectively over, but not technically.

You remember how I pointed out all the FF7 similarities back in Chapter 24? Well the last part of the fight is just like that one weird sequence against Sephiroth at the end: the one where he just stands there and anything you do kills him. Only difference is Legaia 2 doesn’t force you to make any attacks, so you can just chill with him if you want.

Not everything we do to Avalon will kill him, but he’s only got 25000 HP now, so it’s basically just a matter of pushing him over.



Small spoiler, but there’s no New Game Plus function to Legaia 2, so anything gained here is completely worthless to you. You will never really know what the “Ball of Beginning” is. Also, a Heal Leaf is an early game healing item, so, uh, what the heck?




“Yes…you may have defeated me….but the Source Forge…no longer has any power left!”



And he’s gone.





“Maybe Avalon was right…Maybe the Source Forge really DOESN’T have any power left…”




Everything starts to shake.



“Perhaps because the Source Forge lost its power, it no longer has the strength to support this tower. The power to sustain the entire world might even have been lost!”




Legaia 2 decides that Deus Exing just once isn’t enough.




Now Playing – Fight, Then Riot!

(Specifically, this is an excerpt of the theme that normally plays for a demo video if you leave the game idle on the title screen)



“The sacred stones helped us before! They showed us the Power of Hope!”






“Ho! Count me in! We’ll pour our will to live straight into the Source Forge together!”



“Let me add my will to live, too! I want to live to see tomorrow! I don’t want to lose our world!”







The only way this scene could be more anime is if everyone was giving their energy to Lang specifically.



“Don’t give up! I’m gonna keep trying, right up to the end! We CAN’T give up now!!”




“Yes! We can…”




And everything goes white.



“You’re in a place between life and death. Humans…no, all living creatures, are continually reincarnated here…You shouldn’t be here. You’ve still got a home to go to. You’ve still got people waiting for you. Here…Let me give you this. I think it’ll come in handy.”





“It’s a fragment of something called ‘Hope.’ Hang onto it….”




”…really? You’re my afterlife encounter? You know, Edouard’s dead, why isn’t he here? Just avenged him and everything….

And everything fades to white once more.

Join me next time, where we see how this game ends.