Part 19: Mechanised Melee.

Hey there, lady. What’cha doing?



Oh, you’re calling the guards. How very sensible.



...Four elite samurai would actually be dangerous if they attacked us all at once.



.......



Augh, get ‘im!



Fortunately for any pacifists out there, what seemed like an unavoidable encounter will actually end with the masked man killing the four enemies for us…



Unless we cut in, that is. And you do have to be quick about it! There’s not much time before he’ll start killing them.



After Sakaguchi Chiushi, Tanaka Koharyu, Murakami Eiji and Tanaka Shinichi are slain in one way or another, we can actually walk right past this guy. He won’t attack unless you talk to him.



I have become a demon… And I shall kill humans!!



The ‘demon’ is an interesting enemy; he has high defence and moves with fancy names like ‘Root of All Evil’, ‘Two Fears’ or ‘Three Great Defeats’… which all do about 25 damage to Ryoma. Two Fears and TGD will stop feet and hand techs from working respectively, but even so, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is an easy fight.



...Until he pulls this move. You might want to be careful about avoiding this one.



Our masked man is only worth an EXP value of 8, which means that Sonic-maru didn’t even get much out of that fight. But hey, at least it was different! And speaking of different, let’s look in the room that guy came out of.



If we talk to the person inside, we hear a steady beat… and then a chime as he pulls a magic trick for us.



This definitely feels like yet another reference I’m not getting. The tiger is the same as the ones from the Kung Fu chapter, and the Dumb Monk (or Witty Priest as the old RPGC site calls him) is a non-threat. He does have 336 HP though, so it takes a while to kill him.



Uh… Thanks? (The monk then fades from existence.)



I have to concur with the thread; things are getting weirder as we go deeper into Ode Iou’s castle.



You’ve killed 65 people. Are you going to kill me too?

Got it in one, old man.

Such is my fate…



Leaving aside how Shohei knows how many people we’ve killed, you’ve probably guessed that things go a little differently when you haven’t killed anybody.

Sir… It appears that you still have yet to harm a single person! Remarkable! Perhaps you really can save this accursed castle. Please, take this with my regards.

The old man then hands over ten Castellas, the better healing item… one at a time. But hey, free stuff!





There’s more free stuff just ahead, though I’ve yet to use any of the consumable attack items. Part of the old Megaelixir mentality, perhaps.



The stairs lead to yet another fork in the road… It’s really no wonder that I can’t find any maps of this chapter.



The left side has another secret passage, but let’s ignore that for just a moment.



The hallway proper leads to this sleeping guy. You have to interact with him five times just to make him say this line… and then another five to get him pissed off enough for a fight.





It might only be the early hours of the morning, still before sunrise… But everyone else is up and getting murdered, so why should this guy be any different? With only 160 HP, he doesn’t even get to attack.



The temptation to steal another LPer’s joke is strong. IN HELL!



Heading back to the secret door just north of the sleeping guy, we head on through it and another immediately after…



Which comes out here. We’re headed up the ladder, not down the stairs.

(No music.)

This leads us to the attic, and something I’ve been largely avoiding: traps. The other path we could have taken to get into the third building (back above the storehouse, remember?) is absolutely littered with all manner of them, while this route means we only have to deal with some gimmicky encounters.



Moving between the visible traps will start the fight; make sure to go south instead of east.



The first encounter is the most dangerous of the lot, as Fire Traps like to use Flamethrower as you try to pass by them. This will deal about 70 damage to Ryoma and 160 to Sonic.



Attacking them will also make them counter with Explosion, which hurts even worse. Either kill the left-most one at range and run through the gap to the Trap Master, or follow the path. Your choice.



The second encounter is much easier to deal with; have Sonic use Shuriken Storm to take out the Gas Trap below Ryoma, who can then escape and slash the Trap Master to death.





This would be why you head south, by the way. Ryoma gets Maria’s Veil now that Sonic’s done with it.



The Water Buddha Statues and their boss shouldn’t get a chance to act, since the Shura statue dies to one Shinobi Slash.



These guys are in much the same position; move Sonic into the middle and use Cross Slice.



We’re now at our destination, but Sonic actually hit level 9 during one of those fights and I want to show off his new move.



This, uh…



This may have been a poor choice.

-------



No… Sonic-maru… It seems that the rising of the sun over our fair land is still a long way off…



Yeah, let’s just pretend that didn’t happen, shall we?

-------



Sonic the definitely-not-dead shinobi leaps down into the next room, while Ryoma uses the ladder like a sensible person.



We have a nice little tea room waiting for us through the door, but now is not the time for beverages.



I’m surprised that you’ve made it this far! You must be very tired. I was just about to have some tea. Please, join me. Have a seat…

…

Why yes, this is indeed a trap. You can see the same blue cushions there and everything.

-------


And then you have to walk alllllll the way back. Oh, and if you lack the Basement Key, the warden will still be there. Just cloak yourself and he’ll open the door to try and figure out where his prisoner went.



Also, this expression is great. But enough about the adventures of Sonic’s alternate universe counterpart.

-------



Look, I’m in a hurry. Please just take a seat on the cushion and relax!

Still not buying it, buddy.

... Shoot!



*click*

All right, I’ve turned the trap off. Don’t worry, it’s quite safe now! Come, come! Sit down…




A picture’s worth a thousand words, folks.

Shoot! All right, you win!!



By the way… How did you like all of the little gadgets set up around the castle? Oh no, they’re not ALL traps! My wonderful mechanical body, for instance…



-------



Welcome to our next miniboss fight, Clockwork Gennai and his six Electrodes. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Let’s just kill the main guy and everything else will Break Down!” And you’re right, they will.

However! There is a very good reason not to kill Gennai until his minions are dead.



The minions themselves don’t pose much threat; their attack is inaccurate and barely hurts Ryoma, though Sonic will still feel the pain. They will counter melee attacks with Explosion, so try to avoid that.



Gennai is shamefully easy once they’re gone, because any remotely decent attacks he has are ranged. If you get right up in his face, he will only use Mechanical Piece to deal 1 damage and push you away.



Which means Ryoma gets to clown him with Polaris Single-Blade.







And this is why you should kill the minions first; it makes Gennai very likely to drop this key item, which we will be using for side stuff later.

-------



My body won’t stop!



And that is why you don’t turn yourself into some kind of unholy automaton.

Speaking of, I had to learn about how browsers handle frame delays in .gifs to make this one. Turns out having frames on a 10ms delay makes browsers treat them as 100ms instead (except for Safari who displays them for 30ms), so they need to be lengthened to 20ms in order to not appear so sluggish. Here’s the old version of this .gif for comparison.



Alright, that’s more than enough tech talk. Back to



See that slot on the right? We’ll be coming back soon to do something with that. (Sonic actually has everything we need right now, but a pacifist won’t.) For now, let’s head through the door.



The staircase upward heads toward the end of the chapter; we could head there right now, but we have plenty more places to see and people to kill.



So downstairs it is.



I’m not really the princess!

Heh… Don’t matter. I’m afraid you can’t live now that you’ve seen us…

Somebody help meeee!!



Hello!



Goodbye.



Aizen, Kongo, Fudo and Ashura bring us ever closer to our final kill.



What a strong man…



Sorry, lady. We’re on a mission.




But wait, what if…


There’s actually a fight if Ryoma’s around to save Sonic, but we’ll take a look at that another time. (I’m asking you all to be patient about a lot of stuff in this chapter, aren’t I?)



As things are, we’re going to deny the ‘princess’ for now.

I see…

Oh, and guess what?



If you talk to her again, you get a murder option.





And indeed, you can kill Yodogimi here if you wish to.



She is the one exception to the Don’t Murder Any Women rule, despite what Sonic’s mental count says. More on that, you guessed it, later.



Get lost, Matsukaze.



Upstairs, Tokita Jujinmaru is holding another password check.



But this just leads back to that fork where I commented about a lack of maps for the chapter, right before the sleeping guy.



Sooooo now we need to retrace our steps back to where we entered the trapped attic. (Take the left door at the fork, then the secret passage.) Now we’re going down here.



And up into another part of the attic.



This room would be absolutely packed with Trap Masters if we had come here earlier, but defeating Gennai disables all of his traps throughout the castle. They’re a hazard that dumps you in that pit if touched, which of course goes straight to the jail cell.





There’s a nice armour upgrade up here, as well as an item we can use on those poles to make a tiny shortcut through this room.



The helmet is definitely appreciated though.





Okay, now where are we?





Well, the hidden passage leads back to where the old man was keeping score on our murder spree.



While the other path leads somewhere new.



This room is a right pain if the traps are still active, opening pits all over the place; some on proximity, some on a timer.



It has a copy of Sonic’s starting gauntlet and a few attack items lying around.



Oh, and a secret down this hole. Just this one.



Pictured: What Ryoma will say each and every time we fall down a hole.

Also, you have to follow a particular path to reach that chest. Go left, down twice, then right.



…



Yeah, I don’t know either. Let’s pick things up back in the attic above… next time.