Part 25: Love is the Melody We Can All Sing

Update 25: Love is the Melody We Can All Sing



Let's get going to finish this thing out.





Another cave like what we've seen before, but this is short and impossible to get lost in.



A bit north...



...and a bit east gets us to this little room inside the cave.



So, remember all of the people missing around the area?



Yeah.



Lisa, was it? Your mom is being held in a room in the back. But you can't save us right now.



Despite what you might actually think, this is only one of two people you can actually talk to.



Also, there are monsters. I just run away because I'm conditioned to save up health at this point.





I plan on doing something, buddy. I all kinds of plan on doing something.







Well, with that room out of the way, we take the short walk up to destiny.



Before we move on, as only appropriate for a final boss, I have videos. Yes, that's plural. They're mostly the same, but I did two two parallel runs here at the end. One is this GBA version of Mother. The other two are from Earthbound Zero, the all but unmodified North American prototype. One NES video covers the entire last update and this one, the other NES video and the GBA video are from entering this cave until the end. Personally, I recommend either NES video, mainly for the fact that the sound is better but since I don't have an overleveled main character, I have to be a little bit more stingy with my healing in the upcoming battle.

Final Battle: GBA

Final Battle: NES

Magicant + Final Battle: NES



We enter to an entirely dramatic rise of the mothership housed in Mt. Itoi.



Welp.



Let's do this.





Giygas is definitely...a thing. He almost looks like an overgrown house cat in a stasis pod, and I'm sure that's no accident. Also, this music will make you uneasy during the entire thing. It's sort of like an alien heartbeat, in a strange way.



As you might expect, Giygas is a gimmick battle. I'll explain things better in a little bit, but I have the most important thing you can do in this battle to get out of the way first.



Having Mark use PSI Shield beta is absolutely paramount to use as soon as possible.





Lisa and Isaac are boring and just guard.

PSI Shield beta will reduce all non-physical damage to all party members by 50%. Keep this in mind for a minute.





Every round, Giygas will say something and then attack. Who and for how much?



Everyone and for a lot before defensive bonuses. Those quick with the arithmetic will note that at the base level Giygas is doing 80 damage to everyone every round. This is huge. That's almost Fire gamma and about the same as Freeze omega for free.





Basically, Giygas is telling us about his past regarding George and Maria.





You may have noticed I have talked about any attacks on my end. Well, that's because while you can attack Giygas and potentially deal damage, it does no good. As Brutus told us a while back, we can't win with brute strength.





So this is really just a prolonged defensive battle. Mitigate the damage done to you as much as you can and heal when you need to. If you watch my NES videos, you'll see that I have to use healing a lot more sparingly since only "Chica" has Lifeup pi for this battle and it's not exactly cheap in terms of PP cost.







Thanks, Giygas, I totally forgot who I was for a little bit. Glad I have you around to remind me of my genetic heritage.





Something noteworthy is that Giygas seems a bit unstable in his monologing. He was just calmly explaining things and now he's starting to show some actual rage. I guess it is pretty understandable, though, considering he had to turn against the people that raised him and then attack their home for the good of his own people. It's a bit tragic, really.





We aren't even worth his time. We are nothing compared to his great otherworldly power.



It's hard to overstate how important Lifeup pi is in this battle.







In another swing, Giygas decides that now Mark can live and just leave his old life behind to be with Giygas. I presume this is Giygas remembering the good times with George and Maria and possibly wanting to have some semblance of happiness like then. Of course, it's implied that Mark tells him to fuck off.





And we're back to rage. Now the battle changes gears. How so?



We have a handy dandy new battle command now. Everybody can use it. It's what Mark does from here on out. In the NES version, this command is available as soon as you leave Magicant.



This is when I stop being stingy at all with healing and Lisa is using Lifeup pi every single round from here to the end.



Isaac joins Mark in the singing offensive. He also will be doing this until the end.



Since nobody's guarding now, this is why it's even more important to keep constant healing coming.





When you sing, you get some flashy background colors while Eight Melodies starts playing.



Giygas, not too happy with this, always interrupts.





Every time you use it, though, you get a little bit further in the song.





Unfortunately, at this point, I start running out of interesting things to say, much like Giygas.



It is nice how he always has a slightly different way to interrupt you.







We just keep on keepin' on.







Until finally...



We have a seizure.







And with that...



He disappears. We have defeated a great threat to mankind through the power of song. I love this game.



Naturally, Giygas can't simply die, so he takes his spaceship and leaves. I'm sure this won't mean anything to anyone later.







We're then taken through the prologue. Every scene has some minor animation, but is mostly staic with a short blurb of text. Lisa finally finds her mom, her actual reason for adventuring with Mark and Isaac.



Brutus is just awesome.



Easter, the town of children, actually has adults again.





Lisa is the first of the main three to go home.



Isaac is finally appreciated by the students of Twinkle Elementary.





Mark returns home, his family waiting for him. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty ready to scoot on up to bed after this adventure to relax.



I know she's just reading a letter here, but I can't avoid seeing her eating a sandwich instead.



Yeah, Mark definitely deserves some sleep.



During this part, we get a cast list of sorts.



Really, it's just all of the overworld sprites. I won't show them all, but it's a nice touch.



I'll never forget you, Mr. Penguin.



I don't know if these guys show up as alive or dead depending on what happens when they follow you around Magicant. I'm assuming they keep a tally of the ones that die to adjust this part.



Lastly, our party members show up to wrap this part up.



Then it's time for the credits. Fun fact: the GBA version plays The Paradise Line here, but the NES version plays a variant of Airplane Ride I can't find anywhere.



It's the kind of thing you don't realize until you watch the credits to the same damn game about 7 times within 24 hours.



Here's just some guy that definitely doesn't exist as a major symbol of the gaming industry.



But yeah, I had to play the end that many times because I had more trouble than you could imagine trying to get a recording that didn't have sound lag or just turn into horribly mangled shit.



It was a bit weird and frustrating, but I survived. At any rate, this screen fades off, but then a phone rings.



I like that he gets a sprite of some sort in this game. This always strikes me a bit odd, though, since it seems to imply a sequel with the same character(s), which didn't happen.



And with that, we're done here.