Part 32: Winter 1997-Summer 1998

    



Last time, Linda and Ken made a big push to get ahead in animal collecting, so they now sit at already 103 out of 120! Let's continue then for those last few!



We start this episode just as it becomes Winter 1997.



We'll begin by visiting Ken's house.



Turns out Ken's mum is here. I guess she must have finished her tour of Neo-Kenya?



But after all, it turns out it was just a dream...

Maybe not... But either way, he's gone.



We'll stop by the Ranger HQ to have a chat with Ben!



There is a lot we can accomplish when we just try! I'm sure there are many more thing!
It's just how I've been feeling lately! Thank you, you really did it!

Among many things it does well, the game also creates a great feel about the life during the last few months on this planet! However, as for us, it's morphin' time, by which I mean we need to continue our collectathon. For this, we'll head over to Rose Garden as we still have some unfinished business here!



First, we'll head inside...



...since we can talk one last time with Kevin's mum.

When we get to our new planet, I'll have to find an energetic and fertile man as a new father for Kevin, right!

So does that mean that she told Kevin about the stag beetle incident, then?



Anyway, our real reason for coming here is to go into the garden and...



...trigger a battle with one of those horrible roses. Certainly, right now we are more than strong enough to be able to handle it (especially after dealing with whales and pandas!).



Of course, what we really want is for her to summon the grasshoppers. They are already familiar to us, but last time I didn't post the screenshot from the PC Engine version, so here it is now:



Very cool and not at all creepy/horrific!



After this, we head out into the desert as we still have a couple of species that we're missing from here.



First of all, we have these guys that hide in the sand (you can see it just in front of Ken).



Of course, centipedes. They look so silly, especially the males.



And also camels!

Let's now make a quick trip back to Ozport!



More specifically...



...to the wedding shop.



That diamond ring which costs half a million G is now definitely affordable for us! So let's buy it. The salesperson has a somwehat questionable comment about the purchase.

It is a high-value item, so it should be heavily guarded. As such, we will deliver it to your residence. We don't know where the ark is going, but if there are women in that world, then a diamond ring should be able to get you somewhere.

Anyway, by "our residence" they mean of course, the ark. We'll find it there later.

Just to be clear though: this item does absolutely nothing. It's just there because it's the kind of thing you could buy in a real world.



Next, we'll head to hospico, or rather...



...to this cave, just a bit east of it.



It's that place where hermit crabs can be found masquerading as rocks. But we also heard last time that story about even the beastians having a hard time telling apart between hermit crabs and turban shells when they are in hiding!



So, now that we know about this issue, when we see a small rock on the ground (ignore the worm)...



...it will sometimes also trigger a battle against turban shells instead! Finding turban shells is kind of weird and I don't really have a good explanation. The only conversation about it is really the one from last time, but at least it gives you a pretty direct pointer what to do, so I guess it's not actually a problem.



By the way, if you go back to the ark...



...this guy standing in front of the hut has a bit to say.

One year and 2 seasons left, huh? The foot traffic in tows has decreased noticeably... even merchants are slowly starting to close down their shops. It's also time for you guys to go into the finish line sprint!

Yeah, we know. It's been going on for a while already, but this is where you can get an explanation why merchants are disappearning, if you haven't figured it out yourself. It's kind of an interesting concept that you slowly lose access to shops and services in the last part of the game.



Coming outside, it's already Spring 1998.



As always, we'll check the calendar...



...but again, it's one we've already seen.



We'll head again through the Battle Park tunnel...



...and then through this teleporter back into the underground.



I've shown this cave last time when we were catching antelopes, but now we'll actually head inside!



This place is called Gapia and it's important because there are several endemic species living here that you can't find elsewhere. One of them is in particular a massive pain.

However the animals you see jumping around on the screenshot are not one of the endemic species. Those are just tree frogs. Both males and females are abundant here and easily caught. So if you haven't found a female tree frog yet, then you can just come here and capture one in about 5 seconds. Of course, that's not what we're here for, therefore let's proceed.



Oh, hey, what are you?



Ah, right, sea cucumbers!



As if we need more white beastman statues!

Interestingly, they don't even look so different from the real ones. Here's an actual photograph (from our Earth) of one species of sea cucumber which seems to have inspired their in-game design:


^{By I, Marrabbio2, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2416061}



And then we start our usual up and down the staircase dance (or perhaps, up the down staircase?)



As you walk through the dungeon, you might see these flowers along walls.



The are literally called "dog eaters" so you don't really want to have dogs in your party when you fight them. On the other hand, there's not really a good reason to fight them, since they can't be captured. Also, they just sit next to walls, so just don't run into them, mmkay?



Interesting setup here with two staircases next to each other.



Although their destinations are separated by a wall!



If you camp overnight in these sandy kind of looking areas...



...you will definitely get invaded by some giraffes. As we can see they are definitely NOT extinct like Bronco was claiming.



So, if we go back up and...



...take the other side of that double staircase, let's see what we'll find.



After a short walk, we find a... surprising teleporter! But where could this one possibly go?



Here we are, on the other side. Let's see...



Oh, hey, it's an ark... another one.



This one certainly looks a bit worse for wear. But, well, we're here now, so let's go in and have a look!



Yeah, this place has seen better days for sure.



I feel like I'm starting to lose my mind!
Nevertheless, let's go inside and have a look! Do you think we'll find its crew?
......
I hope they are human.

Uhhh...

Ok, let's first check the "hand in" room since it's right there.



This place seems to have been abandoned a long time ago.

However, if we approach, we do get a message.

There is currently one set of data present in the device. Extract?
[ Yes. ] / No.

Sure we'll do it, but you might as well not since all you get is a pair of cicadas. They are easily found in several places in the underground, so this "gift" is of dubious value at this point. Well, ok let's see what else is around.



The registration room has also seen better days.



The pods where animals would normally be kept are also not functional and mostly fallen apart/destroyed. Let's head to the top deck where the bridge and crew quarters are.

First we reach the crew quarters, but...



Well, that's a shame. Let's head a bit further forward to the bridge.



[ Let's try it anyway, just in case? ] / I guess you're probably right.

Obviously, we have to try.

You're a strange one, Ken! It will absolutely not open!
Although, since it's damaged like this, maybe it will open due to a malfunction...
Well, let's do it on 3, then.
.....
One... two... and three...

There's a weird sound, but...





Normally the door opens after that sound! This is all very puzzling.

But then...



I guess it was probably just a bit stuck then, huh?

Ah! It opened...? Ken... what shall we do...?

I mean, go inside?



Inside is clearly also non-functional with most of those "beating" hearts missing or dead.



But somehow there's a chest here in the corner.

Ken found the crown of N'Bell!

Oh hey, here's one more crown, who would have expected to find it here, huh?



Surprisingly there's also a chest in the other corner, but...

Ken found a white beastman statue!

Yeah. It's literally a joke at this point. I'm not even sure if there's anybody left on the planet to sell it to! (Obviously you can come earlier than we did, but still...)

In any case, there doesn't seem to be anything else to be found here, so let's make our way back out.

As we do so...



We shouldn't worry about it! Everything will be fine as long as we stay together, right?

Well, sure keep telling that to yourself, Linda. But I'm pretty sure you already know that it's not so simple. As far as theories, knowing that there are time shenanigans involved, we can easily conclude that this is potentially a remnant of a previous time loop or something like that that has been hidden here in the underground for a long time (hence its state of disrepair). Kind of like an archaelogical find that was buried under the layers of civilisations that have existed over time.



Anyway, a few steps away from the ark, there's also this. Looks like some sort of a door, but this one is, at least for now, impassable. So we'll have to figure something out for that before we leave the planet.

So, we'll use the teleporter to get back to the "normal" part of the cave. There's still more animals to be found here.



First of all...



...these guys here.



I suppose it should be pretty obvious that these are anglerfish. And trust me, they are just as annoying as those in Outer Wilds.



The annoyance is not really because they are going to kill you, since they are definitely not going to be doing anything of the sort at this stage. The annoyance is that, well, if you check the screenshot, you will see that they are all female. So we have here a bit of a similar situation like with tree frogs, except this time it's the males which are difficult to find. Unfortunately, this time also there is NO place where they are found in abundance, like female tree frogs can be found here.

Oddly enough, this absence of male anglerfish, is somehow a bit realistic. The situation with male anglerfish and their existence is even on our Earth exceptionally weird and so, unbelievably, this situation about them being difficult to find is somehow not actually random--let's just say that even on our Earth finding a male anglerfish is not a question with a straightforward answer! The sex life of anglerfish is deeply disturbing.

So, what options then remain for obtaining a male anglerfish? Well, one option is to put your faith in the RNG and keep trying to fight animals here in Gapia. The sea cucumbers have the ability to summon into battle animals of other species, so this is probably your best bet if that's what you want to try. There is however, a much easier way (if you know it). So for now, let's just catch a few female ones, and then we'll see about the rest in a moment.

Before we leave the cave, there's just one more species to be found. If you make camp, sometimes you might get ambushed by these:



This is yet another undiscovered species, for the time being known as "the strange guy"



So, now we can leave the cave and deal with the anglerfish situation.

As it turns out, if you hatch a shiny egg in the incubator in Ozport, you have a 7/8 probability of getting an anglerfish (the other 1/8 simply gives you nothing). Of course that can still be 50/50 male or female, however, that still means like 7/16 probability of getting a male which is still pretty reasonable. The incubator can hold 8 eggs at a time, so if you put in 8 shiny eggs, chances are pretty good you will succeed in getting a male.

Of course, by saying this, we have just moved the problem, because then the next question is, how does one obtain a shiny egg? Well, again, as it turns out, the easiest way to get a shiny egg is to... dismantle the female anglerfish.



So first, we head to Nebul (the only one who seems not to have left the planet yet) and dismantle all our extra anglerfish to get a few shiny eggs. Then...



...we head over to Ozport...



...to the incubator service. Here we'll hand over all our shiny eggs.

The eggs won't hatch until next season, so we can leave for now and come back later to see the results.

So we'll head over to Minago quickly...



Of course, we want to give a name to our newfound species. So "the strange guy" will become simply a slug.



And with all of that going on, it's no wonder that it's already Summer 1998. There is now exactly one year left!

So let's head back to Ozport to see how our anglerfish eggs are doing!



Some time ago, you gave me a shiny egg... and it has birthed an anglerfish (male)! Even ugly animals are cute as babies, that's why I can't stop doing this!

Well, at least one of our eggs has produced a male anglerfish, so looks like we're good here! But seriously, go to wikipedia and read about the situation with male anglerfish. It's way more insane than you think.

Also, while we are in Ozport...



...let's go again through this little passage.



It leads, of course, to this pool of muck...





But it also allows us to catch some catfish!

All right now...



...let's head back into the underground for a bit.



We're heading to this place over here. It's the famous Melt Pot where we went previously to collect some hot poop! There's a couple more species we can find here, to finish the work.



Everything is full of lava!



However, soon we find our next new species... they look kinda big.



Somehow, dragons. To be fair, we have been told that there is a legend about their existence. Although it was I think somewhere in Scenario A when Ken's mum mentioned that, so it's been a while!



They are also pretty strong, but so are we, so this poses no particular difficulty. Incidentally, if you happen to be carrying hot poop with you, then the dragons will actively chase you. So I guess that means that they are the ones who eat red flowers and "produce" said hot poop!

So now, try not to laugh, but here is what the dragons looked like in the PC Engine version:



Hilarity ensues.

Anyway, we have one last species to find in this cave!



Ah, here it is! Can you guess?



Yes! It's "the horned guy", another undiscovered species!



Certainly also on the stronger side, but again, not really a match for us at this point.

Before I forget here is the awesome PC Engine version:



This is actually the last unnamed species you can find in the game, so as always...



...let's head to the animal expert and sort that out.

So "the horned guy" will of course become cattle.

And now, to finish off, let's head to the ark...



...and hand all of this in!



Finally the robot confirms for us that we are now at 114 out of 120. So we still have six species left to find, and we'll do that next time in the final episode of Scenario C!




So, as promised, although we didn't need to use it in the game, today as an extra, we'll have a brief look at how the auction house works in this game! It's actually pretty simple.



So the auction house is over in Nebul (because it's not actually legal!) and it's accessed by going down this staircase.



There are a few people here to talk to. So let's start with the guy standing on the left.

I really want to buy 7 male anglerfish during the current session!

Male anglerfish do indeed appear for auction, but usually for quite a lot of money--this is of course, completely not needed, because as we've seen it's quite easy to obtain them, but if you don't know how...

And then the guy with the cane, sitting on the sofa.

Sometimes you can get stuff here surprisingly cheap... and vice versa. It's all about the timing.

The guy standing in front of the "stage":

It would be nice if a bargain would come up...

And finally the woman.

I only have 250,000 G with me today, so it's probably not going to work out for me...

In order to start the auction, you can talk to the animal trader.

At the touch of a button, you can obtain an animal that you have been unable to get elsewhere! It only costs a bit of money, of course!

And then we get into it!



After this, you are shown the "offering" and can start bidding.



All the data is shown on the screen, and this time we're bidding for 6 female ants.

If you want to bid you can press the circle button. There are other computer controlled participants, too, so any time anybody bids, the time is extended by 5 seconds (so like a real auction, no last second snipes here). If nobody bids during that time, then the last bidder wins.

You can certainly get some rarer species here, but mostly it will cost you a lot of money. But if you're playing the game blind, it might be useful to come here and at least see what animals pop up, so that you can at least try to find them yourself somewhere!

Auction house also closes at some point before the end of the game when the animal trader who runs it leaves the planet. So don't expect to be able come here in 1999 to get the one last mssing animal!

Finally I should mention that no, you cannot offer your own extra animals for auction. But honestly, the game pretty much showers you in money, so...

Anyway, that's it for the (illegal) auction house!




Almost nothing left here! As you can see, we're really not going to find out what the crowns are for until the very last moment!

• Visit the lady on Ozsat in 1999 to hear the rest of her story.
  
• Figure out how to capture aye-ayes. Apparently they can disguise themselves as humans.
  
• Explore the "untrodden wilds".
  
• Explore more the "pyramids" in the underground.
  
• Find otu what's behind the closed door in Gapia.
  
• Investigate more about who built the management system of the planet.
  
• Find what the "crowns" are for and where they may be used.
  

Look! Walk on the wild side!