Part 34: Whirlwind Tour.

Since Li already busted open her personal dungeon, we may as well take care of that while we’re up here.



The Dungeon of Technique is rather odd; there’s no random encounters at all, and the whole first room is nothing but a bunch of boulders blocking off different passages.

This rock…



Each rock can be broken open with one and only one of Li’s techniques. Each specific boulder has a set move that corresponds to it, but if you don’t know it ahead of time, have fun trying each of these sixteen in turn.

Why didn’t it work?

You’ll get that line a whole lot.


Fair point. Can't really argue with halving the problem.



When you do get it right, the sound effects for the move play and Li breaks the boulder apart. This first one responds to her ultimate technique, XuanYaLianShanQuan.



Regardless of which boulder you choose to break, three things await you. A passageway to the next big room, a treasure chest and a man who looks like the restaurant owner from Li’s chapter.





…This censorship of his kissyface was unintentional, but I’m not complaining.

-------



So, uh… This is Voice Heart. He professes his love for whoever your main character is, has 800 HP, and is exceptionally weak. The worst thing he can do is use Sweet Whisper, which causes the target to be both drunk and asleep.



I think you know what happens next.



He does have a chance to drop these, at least.



The second big room has more boulders, but a few open passageways as well. Any that are already open lead back toward the first room and have a treasure chest of their own, but grabbing them now means fighting Voice Heart again for each and every one.



Instead, Li just breaks the nearest rock with Long Hu Liang PoWan and we move on.



Urgh…



The third big hall has only one rock, and that responds to LaoHuZhiWu (aka. Old Fox Dance).





Er…



Oh, you’d better believe it!

Eeeeeeek, whyyyyy!!





Despite the change of music, Voice Heart is still as weak and squishy as he ever was. This dungeon’s kinda weird.





The inheritor’s ultimate weapon doesn’t have much raw attack power, but the +20 to all four stats is quite nice.



Now that we’ve finished off that weirdo, we can go around and grab all the treasure chests with impunity.

The total haul: Dynamite, Clack Case, Mermaid Bottom, Goddess Gauntlet (x2), Maria’s Veil, Baal Blood, Holy Water (x2), Amon Blood, Thick Chest Hair, Golden Hairpin, Chario Boots, Ice Helm.



A few of those items are new; the two blood items are for laying down fire and poison fields, while the Goddess Gauntlet is clearly caster armour. The Mermaid Bottom is similarly IQ-focused footwear, granting immunity to water fields and having your foot techs locked.



...And that’s it for the Dungeon of Technique! Some of these take no time at all if you know what you’re doing.



As we head down from the mountain, there’s… whatever the hell that is, waiting off to the side.



For you who seek to be ever more powerful, smash the path open with your strength alone!!

-------



Uhhh… Is that a kappa with flaming wings riding an eel? (Edit: The thread pointed out it's more likely a crow tengu, and threw in telling me that the staff he's using is called a Gohei.)



Li promptly kicks off 341 of its 448 HP. This weirdo’s even weaker than the last one.



Alright, so… The Dungeon of Strength is another unique little challenge.



It’s a straight shot north to Andre’s ultimate weapon, with eleven chests scattered around and no encounters.



It seems to be sealed by some kind of energy…

The catch? Well, firstly you can’t open any of the chests. Not until you pick up that weapon.





And what a weapon it is! That’s +90 Pw and +80 Vt! And if you give it to someone else as an offhand, they still get half of that.



Okay, here’s the real catch. While all the chests are now unlocked, a random encounter hits me one step into the next room. Because the encounter rate has gone absolutely sky-high.







The Dungeon of Strength is also home to a handful of enemies you won’t see anywhere else…



As well as the ‘hell no’ formation.

The Barocrests have a weak draining attack and no health, while the Horror Ship is basically like the flying fortress Bariki Daioh fought. It has 2032 HP and an EXP value of 4.



The Limber Scylla are one of the three formations with an EXP value over 18, offering 24. They do have one of Sonic’s stronger techs though, so you have to be a bit careful with them.

The haul for this dungeon: Mermaid Bottom, Ice Helm, Bloody Magic Robe, Amethyst Shield, Goddess Gauntlet, Chario Boots, Holy Water, Magic Pendant…



…the second Gold Topknot…





…and two annoying fake-outs.

In three screens, the game throws twenty encounters at me. Let’s never go back there again.

-------



The last dungeon for our current party is the Waco Kid’s, which we’ll get a hint to whenever we’re passing through the area between the Naorigusa clearing and Devil’s Peak. The Kid’s horse runs off through the trees, and we have to follow.





It’s not really very difficult. South, east a little, north, east a little more, south, east…



…and then north, into the cave entrance hidden under the tree cover. Li’s one tile south of it right here.



The Waco Kid’s dungeon is the one that most ties into his chapter’s gimmick; it’s the Dungeon of Time, and we have eight bells to get in and out before bad things happen. If you’re sprinting constantly, you can get everything and get out in about six. There’s not a whole lot of room for error though… Unless Sonic is your protagonist, of course.





Go north, then west for these two items. Head through the far left door.

Oh, and you may notice the latter of those two shots is a little darker than the other. That’s because the first bell already rang, and each bell makes the dungeon darker.



Take either path to the stairs…



Go around the holes to some Chario Boots… (Two bells already.)





Southwest exit, through the next room…



Hellooooo there, beautiful.





I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty lucky.





Three bells down, loot some Magical Wood from the chest and leave southwest. (Never use Magical Wood as a healing item. It heals a 3x3 area, then hurts the user. I’ve had it kill Li while I was trying to heal Andre.)





Four bells, going through the northeast door.





Oh yeah, I forgot to mention there’s no random encounters here. For obvious reasons.



Five bells, grab the Holy Water and go northeast.





Six bells, stumble through one last room before ending up back at the beginning.



Here’s what seven bells of darkness looks like. By this point, you’d probably be screwed.

(Silence.)

Hyahehe…



You look absolutely delicious…



-------



Say hello to the Jaggy Eggs, a set of bosses with 384 HP each. They have a weak Spin Drive (as in Cube’s tech, 30-120 HP depending on target), Laser Sonic (40-100 HP to anyone hit) and Space Phage…



…which kinda hurts. They also have pretty high defence, but not enough that Dodegesden and Hurricane Shot won’t one-shot them.

They have an EXP value of 13, a chance to drop a Magic Pendant…



…and a guarantee to give us another piece of Ariel equipment, as well as turning the lights back on.



15 Defence like the Amethyst Shield, and the same Petrify Immunity as the rest of the set. Very nice.

That was a bit of a short update, but we’ve only got two more personal dungeons and three bonus bosses to go. We’ll take care of those next time, and then have one final update to take on Odio!