Part 10: Drake Kingdom's Mist Generator

Update 10: Drake Kingdom's Mist Generator



All right, after some generous grinding I managed to buy up all of the equipment available for everyone. Let' s check out this Mist Generator and see if we can't find a way to stop it.







Music: Mist Generator


It's a smokestack! Thick Mist is pouring out from that smokestack!

That is where the Mist that engulfed Drake Kingdom comes from!

Now listen, Noa. This castle has caverns deep underground. Deep inside them is a Mist Generator! That's where the Mist is coming from!

I'll destroy the Mist Generator! I want to get rid of all the Mist!

You're a good girl. That's right, Noa. We have to destroy the Mist Generator!

Once we reach the Mist Generator, we can stop the Mist with our Ra-Seru powers. But this is a vital castle to the enemy, and will be heavily defended. Proceed with caution!







The Mist Generator is a bit of a maze. Well, actually it's a lot of a maze. And of course, it's the sort of maze where just about every wrong turn dead-ends into a treasure chest, so you sort of want to go every wrong way you can before you go the correct way, which only helps if you know what the maze's layout is going in.





Fortunately, the one really irreplaceable item is one you walk right past anyway. This teaches Gala his first Hyper Art.





Every random battle enemy here is a Seru. On the upper floor we have Theeder and Gimard upgrades, as well as the new foe Zenoir. Zenoir has a pretty nasty fire based attack that can do a good 200+ damage to someone (more like 150 for Vahn) and has a decent amount of durability to boot, which is to say Noa's Tempest Break isn't a guaranteed kill.

It's also the first Seru that doesn't really want to get absorbed. I fought ten or so of these, and I believe Gala is the only person who managed to pick up Zenoir's magic. Oh well, I only need it on one person anyway to show off the animation.





I've seen scarier elevators, but that doesn't mean I'm thrilled to ride this one.





Every little bit of offense helps. I kind of feel like a chump for buying Vahn an upgrade back at Biron, though...







This next floor is also quite the maze – and, again, you want to make every mistake you can to get prizes.





This area introduces Vera (Lv2). Do yourself a huge favor and teach this to Gala as soon as possible. Nighto also pops up again down here – curiously, it's still the same version of Nighto we've seen before and it goes down quite easily.





I didn't have too much trouble getting this far, but I wonder if I'm just a little overprepared. Anyway, let's move forward and trigger a surprise meeting...







Music: Songi's Theme


Vahn! Noa! Step aside. Leave Songi to me.

Gala! How forgetful you are! It is I who defeated you once before! Have you forgotten how much stronger than you I am? You must be suicidal to fight someone as skilled as I am in the fighting arts. Oh, how pitiful! Your extreme stupidity brings tears to my eyes! Well, come on! I'll finish you quickly so you'll feel no pain.


I have to admit, now that he's in full villain mode, Songi's lines are kind of fun to read.







Music: My Name Is Songi

So I've bitched about Gala a LOT since he joined, and for good reason. But the thing is, Gala has been steadily improving. He proved himself to be at least better than nothing back in the Viguro fight, and now that he's got a Ra-Seru and some equipment, he's really starting to pull his weight.

Now it's time for him to prove that he's really ready to be the third and final member of Team Vahn.





Holy crap Songi is huge.





FLYING SOUL!


This fight is really quite straightforward, as most duels are. It's the usual juggle of Spirit, attacking, and healing. Since Gala can use Vera to heal, and since he finally has a Hyper Art (and room for five commands so he can use his best normal Arts), he's able to cover all of his bases pretty well. The fight really just boils down to knowing when to do what.









I don't consider the fight to be particularly interesting from a gameplay perspective, but I think it does a perfect job of completing Gala's transition from deadweight to badass. Gone is the man who could barely string a four command Art together every other turn – now there is only Gala, slayer of Seru, monk of Biron, kicker of ass.







WUSS!





I am pleased! After all, a weak rival is so boring. We goth use Seru – that makes us comrades. So let's call our little meeting today a draw. As a fellow Seru-user I'll tell you something you should know. The lord of this castle, Zeto, is waiting for you all by the Mist Generator. Gala, be very, very careful if you value your life. Don't lose to someone like Zeto. Farewell!







Join me next time as we beat up Zeto and destroy this awful place. But in the meantime, have some stills of our new Seru powers.











Nighto tries to be a nifty status infliction spell, but instead he just sucks. I've heard that you can one-hit kill a certain problem boss later in the game with him, though, so that's something.









Gizam is a decent alternative to Theeder for crowd control and also can inflict some form or another of HP draining status effect. Unfortunately I haven't seen it in the Generator yet so Gala hasn't learned it, and Vahn is a subpar caster for this spell since he doesn't like water.











Zenoir deals a punch to one target, then flies down into them and explodes, damaging the target and any enemy near it. Personally I don't find it potent enough to justify it's cost (36 MP), so I'd just as soon use some other magic if I'm going to use magic at all. Also, Vahn seems adamant about not learning this magic for me, so I can't take advantage of his natural proficiency with fire magic. Oh well.