Part 32: The Grand Crossover.

The people have spoken. ...Well, goons have spoken. Whether we’re people is debatable.

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(Music stops, a familiar rumbling begins.)

It’s time…















To the ones who still embrace their delusions of humanity… I invite you… to learn the truth…



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The next thing Li knows, she’s in the void.



The new WuTang Master is just as we left her, of course.



After wandering around in random directions for a few moments, we start getting glimpses into each of the times and places Oersted has plucked our heroes from (instead of going with his stone idols plan).



Wander around a bit more, and you’ll end up finding that a staircase has appeared out of nowhere. There’s no way of telling where it leads, but it’s probably better than here.

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...Well, this is morbid. We not only have to wander around a dead and faded version of Oersted’s chapter, but the WuTang inheritor starts by Hash’s tombstone.

By the way, I hope you liked City of Hopelessness. It’s replaced Wings That Don’t Reach as the background music for most of this chapter.



Li’s position is slightly advantageous simply because you can easily grab Brion again, which is necessary to get into Devil’s Peak and show Oersted what for.



And because there’s another item right nearby that we’re going to need later.



Which protagonist you choose determines what they identify this as. Ayla just calls it ????, the Waco Kid and Sonic also call it an iron box, Andre calls it an odd part… and Coop correctly identifies it as a Battery.

That reminds me, before we go any further… I should mention how the WuTang inheritor is recruited.

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Li, Yuan or Sammo will be waiting right where you’d begin as the main character.



Geez, don’t startle people like that!

Sorry.

But, at least I’m not alone in this freaky place. You sure are the odd one though, ain’t you?



Oh shi-

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Yep, Li wants a one-on-one fight with your leader. Yuan actually just offers to join straight away, and Sammo wants to be fed. (It takes 19 Naorigusa, which is the easiest thing to get with that respawning grove still around.)



Cube counters everything Li does with High-Speed Op, so it’s an easy fight.

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You’re not too bad.





As you can see, everyone keeps their own fonts and yes/no variations. Aeon Genesis put a lot of work into this patch.



Alright, that’s enough messing around in alternate realities. Let’s get back to the real Li.

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She’s busy with her first random encounter, which reveals two things: One, the battle theme for this chapter is the game’s main theme, which is kinda but also pretty cool. Two, the enemies for this chapter are all variants of enemies we saw in the previous eight, mixed and matched with little rhyme or reason. Oersted has royally messed up the local area.



EXP values in this chapter are also all over the place; there’s a few encounters worth zero or one, a whole bunch of 4-10s, some 11-18s… and then three encounters with even higher values (to be revealed later). The encounter list seems to change based on the levels of those in your party, so you can’t even see some of the weaker ones without starting as Cube or Andre.



Hash’s home is no longer accessible, hence why Oersted was allowed to pick up the Hero Shield inside. But hey, look who’s here!





…

Okay, the spoiler tag in the vote? The one about who’s the most hassle to recruit? Surprise surprise, it’s the Waco Kid. He just won’t stop wandering around.



We can find him on the lower half of the mountain, but you have to go nearly to the bottom and off on a sidepath where there was no reason to explore before.







It takes a good couple of minutes to figure out how to even get to him, while Li has to fend off some more of the new local wildlife on her own. (The dog is called Kerberos.)



You want to head east from here; the exit is just offscreen to the west.



And then when you do get over here, he just ellipses at you and walks off again.

The Waco Kid has to be found nine times before he will actually join you. On the plus side, he typically leaves in the direction you want to go to find him.

(Silence.)

In a moment of distraction, I also end up busting open a rock with Li. This is not somewhere we want to go right now… You see, everyone has a personal dungeon that requires them to be part of the active party to enter. However, the WuTang inheritor’s also requires them to know their entire tech list before it’s fully explorable. So we’re going to have to come back another time.



Once we manage to get off the mountain, we can see that Oersted ruined all the signposts for some reason.



Yes, including that one. The Waco Kid heads toward the castle, which is fortunate. (The remaining six places are all inside Lucretia.)



I made a slight error here. The Waco Kid’s next location is just one tile offscreen at the moment, so I don’t remember he’s by the plant in the upper-left until after I explore the rest of the castle.



First stop, the dungeon.



You know how I said to leave most of the items in Oersted’s chapter? That’s because they turn into better items when the finale rolls around, and those can be highly beneficial to our seven heroes. One source I’ve read says that supposedly some will still spawn if the old versions are taken by Oersted, but nobody has documented which ones (if it’s even true). So best to err on the side of caution, I’d say.



Seems like Andre decided that the best thing to do when you’ve been warped to a strange new place is to work out.





Riddle me this, pal… Are you my enemy?


I know what you’re thinking, it’s an obvious choice.

Doesn’t matter anyway.



But it’s actually not. Regardless of whether you say yes or no, Andre will still attack!



So he ends up getting a taste of Li’s first new personal tech, which for some reason she learns before the Master’s FushaNoSha.

Not bad. I’m Andre Takahara. I’m stuck in this crazy place too.



Hmm… Well, I’m sure Li could teach you a thing or two.



We don’t have a whole lot to give Andre just yet, but he already has tons of health. He’ll live through encounters, even if he won’t deal any significant damage.

Oh, and I should point something out.



If you are using the Waco Kid or Cube, Andre will not attack them. He goes straight into giving his name and offering to join after those lines.

He also calls Coop strange, Ayla a ‘child of the natives’ and, if Sonic turns up, says that he’d never have expected to see a ninja in a medieval castle. (Surely that’s the point. ) For some reason, meeting Andre is one of the places where the dialogue changes most based on protagonist.



Next stop, the armoury! This place is full of good gear. We have:
- Castella, Giant Meaty Bone, Potion No.9 and Peach Bun in the barrels.
- Unicorn Horn (x2) in the two white pots.
- Silver Holy Robe (x2) and Genji Armor on the armour stands.
- Genji’s Gauntlet, Genji’s Tabi, Genji’s Helm, Nightmare Helmet, Izanagi’s Scroll and Gatsun Glove in the treasure chests.
- Axian Sword, Marvella Sword, Amethyst Shield (x3) on the wall.
- Izanagi’s Scroll in the vase.

The Nightmare Helmet has a hefty -20 IQ on it, but gives sleep immunity and one more defence than the Genji Helm. The Amethyst Shields are +15 Def, the best available in the chapter… but only usable by Andre, Ayla and Cube. (And Sammo if you chose him.)



As we continue into the castle, we want to turn around here and check out the balcony.



Right after we get rid of more monsters.



Looks like it opens up…

Naturally, this is what the ‘iron box’ is for. Cube’s battery somehow managed to get propelled to the top of Hero’s Mountain during transference.

If you put it back in, Cube whirrs and beeps before waking up and making his happy little burble.



Might as well! Cube works under the same principle as Taro, though… He doesn’t gain levels (and therefore stats), but some enemies drop Power Parts that can improve his 240 HP.



Check out those raw stats though. Cube can tank a whole lot of punishment, especially with his counters in play. And of course, he’s the best choice we have for a healer.



Amusingly, it’s actually possible to get +127 IQ with certain items in this chapter. So Cube can perform really quite well if you’re willing to invest the resources in him… But remember, he can use those accessory slots for robot weapons as well!



On our way through the throne room, we’re attacked by what I can only assume are the time cops looking for Oersted. They have a couple of his moves, funnily enough. (That big moa I showed earlier? It somehow uses Maser Cannon.)



The left room has Holy Armor inside, as well as another Unicorn Horn/Marvella Sword/Amethyst Shield. Holy Armor only offers +12 Def and +5 IQ, but it’s better than nothing.

The room on the other side has yet another Unicorn Horn, Silver Holy Robe, Izanagi’s Scroll…



And this bizarro thing, which is offhand only. It raises eleven different kinds of evasion and gives +20 Pw, but the stat penalties of -10 Sp/Vt/IQ are nasty. (The evasion boosts are for: Rear, Firearm, Strangle, Dull, Sharp, Charge, Foot, Hand, Earth, Wind, and Water attacks. According to the RPGC shrine anyway.)



Alright, let’s go back and chase the Waco Kid around.









This is really just silly.

Now, can you guess where the last place he goes is?



You have until Li and Andre kick this awful pun to death to decide.



Got an answer? Okay, here goes.



If you guessed “pulling a Straybow”, go get yourself a cookie.



You’d better believe it.

… … Can you tell me where this place is? I’m Waco… the Waco Kid. So, you’re lost too… Shall we look for a way out of this place together…?

Easy on the ellipses there, buddy. I think you’ve used up most of our budget for them already.



Alright, that’s a full team at least. How about we go find the others, then get ready to tackle the personal dungeons?



...Those are the ugliest catgirls I’ve ever seen.



Moving swiftly along from that, we find Coop lazing around in Familia village. Wakey wakey, sleepyhead!



’scuse me!



Of course, Coop thinks all problems can be solved with mind-reading and/or giant robots.

Your name is… Li Kuugo? And you’re a WuTang instructor?

He only says the protagonist’s name normally, but the menus are calling Li ‘WuTang’, so she gets an extra line.



You just kinda rifled around in her grey matter without asking, champ. If you say no, his only remark is “Oh, really?”





Yes leads to him getting a Squirrel Kick-based asswhooping.



Not bad… The name’s Coop. You don’t look like such a bad sort, you know. Want some help? I’ve dealt with shadier folks than you.



Since Cube doesn’t benefit from being in combat, we’ll shuffle Coop in instead. Our little robot buddy burbles and runs off back to the castle balcony.

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Oh hey, this encounter. Brachiopelta and Entomopilum are turning up, so we must have crossed a level threshold.



The key message here is “don’t stand on the diagonal”. Seriously, standing diagonally to enemies in this game seems like an almost universally bad move.



Gross. (It’s an accessory that gives +4 power and +2 speed.)

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Our next stop is the Naorigusa clearing, where Ayla is running and jumping around like a lunatic.



He hides in the trees three times, moving further and further left.



Before running out into the middle. Talking to him here will get you thrown into a battle with him… unless you’re Li.

…! L-… … L-……! … Loooove!



(Should I take him with me…?)

Everyone else’s assessment of Ayla is “He seems slightly agitated.” Oh, and since Ayla only knows one proper word, his yes/no choices as protagonist are gibberish.



We’ll leave lover boy to cool off and go find where our last character is hiding.



We meet the Barbarians along the way; they can use a really weak version of Ayla’s Gotcha!, but they also very rarely use his Dodegesden.



He hasn’t had a chance to level up yet, but you can tell that the Waco Kid puts the glass in glass cannon.



After that mess, we need to come over and examine the Devil’s Peak sign.



Because this is where Sonic has set up an ambush.



You know how this goes by now.

…



Shall we join forces?

Sorry, buddy. I’d like to hang onto these folks for a little while longer.

Well… My apologies, then.



That’s everyone’s recruitment shown off. I was going to head into Devil’s Peak to loot the place, but…



Bad things happened. Ishtar… We’ll talk about Ishtar next update.



Instead, let’s talk about something I completely forgot to mention in the Mecha chapter. See, having Coop in the party replaces the Flee command with Teleport. It works mostly the same, except that it sometimes places you somewhere else instead of wherever the battle triggered.

In Coop’s chapter, it would place you on the toilet in Chibikko House, or very rarely in the bathtub. (Supposedly this can be used to drop in on Taeko in the bath, but I couldn’t find when that was supposed to be possible. I ended up in an empty bathtub at one point, so it must have been only during a specific part of the plot.)



If you use it during the finale, however…



Wh-Where is this!?

One of the places it can put you is into Coop’s personal dungeon, which you can’t access any other way and can’t leave until it’s done. So, next time… We explore the ‘Dungeon of the Mind’!