Part 37: Mister Who? (2)

So last time we arrived in Saturn Valley and beat up some most fearsome robots to free the Mr. Saturns. Also we recruited some moron.





The Mr. Saturns are grateful as always.



The Pigmasks were asking about the Needle's location... Do you really not know where it is?





Does that mean they've met one of the Magypsies?


"That way" means that way. I can tell by their eyes. ...North! They're saying to go toward the volcano to the north.

We have our next objective, then.





We can also get a map from this fellow.





It's... not that useful.



...but have you forgotten me? It's me, the Rope Snake. I apologize for the trouble I caused before. No, I'm not depressed. I'm not. Really. I'm not depressed. Until the day comes when I can be useful again... I'll... I'll... I'll devote myself to being patient!

Keep putting on that brave face, you beautiful failure, you.



While wandering around, Lucas picks up Shield Omega, which simply casts Shield on your entire party, which is incredibly useful.

Let's do a bit of shopping before we explore the town proper.







First one is an item shop that sells various foods. The big thing is the Cup of Lifenoodles, which fully restores a person's HP, including from KO, and heals all status effects. It's the best healing item in the game, and thus is understandably expensive. There's also the Lucky Rice, which recovers HP depending on the consumer's luck stat, and the Lotto Meal, which is random in what can happen.







The other shop has some really nice weapon and armor upgrades. Funny Stick and Sevolg are both fine weapon upgrades for Lucas and Kumatora respectively (Duster still prefers his pair of kicks from Chapter 5), while the Leo Bracelet is nice for the humans, and the Ribbon/Bandana are nice for Kumatora/Duster (Boney can also wear the ribbon but his current head gear is better).

The big thing are the elemental pendants, which are worn on the body. All the men (including Boney) can wear them, and they halve their respective damage. That said, I only get a Flame Pendant for Duster since the other two characters are fine right now, but Flame Pendants are obviously going to be very useful for the next dungeon considering we're going into a volcano and all.

Anyway, let's chat up every single damn local using the time-consuming idiot way I thought up to cover these guys.






















There's more Mr. Saturns lurking around the caves.









Mr. Saturns also like to form ladders for reasons.



Each Mr. Saturn in the ladder has a different thing to say, too.



Also girl.



Free Lifenoodles is very handy.





There's a hot spring to heal up at, of course.









And so we're at a dead end. Now to advance the plot.









Looks like we're gonna get some help in scaling this wall.


Hmmm... Just a few more...







So Duster decides to climb the Mr. Saturn anyway, each saying something as Duster steps on them.









And so we climbed a pile of Mr. Saturns so we could enter a volcano.







And now I'm happy because that's the last I'll have to transcribe any Mr. Saturn dialogue this update.





The next screen up has the location of the next Magypsy, as well as another mole cricket.

We may be tiny, but we're still living beings. We eke out our lives as mole crickets. And actually, we've started to branch out into the business world. With franchises opening up everywhere, we're now at the forefront of business evolution. We have all sorts of wonderful goods that we found lying in the... I mean, stocked up on. I could let you have some of them, if you'd like.





It's mostly items to restore status effects and Sincerity Dumplings. Considering we have two characters with Healing PSI and item space is put to much better use on HP/PP restoring items and powerful battle items, these don't really cut it.

If you run into any of my fellow mole crickets out there, give them my regards. *twinkle*



We can't get past here for now because of the boulder, so we might as well stop by and visit our Magypsy friend.





This is Phrygia, who's currently too busy snoozing to pay us any mind.



Fortunately, she paid enough mind beforehand to write us a letter. So let's give it a read.

Welcome. I am Phrygia, the sleeping Magypsy. I assume I'll be fast asleep when you arrive, so I'm leaving this letter here for you. I'm a little more serious and detail-oriented than the other Magypsies. Hello again, Lucas. Ionia told me you would be coming here. The Dark Dragon Needle you're about to pull is in a lake of lava up ahead. I don't mind if you pull it while I'm asleep... It will mean "the time" has come, and I will disappear in my sleep. There is a boulder blocking the path to the volcano. You should give it some Encouraging Words. Well, good luck. Smoochie smoochie.



Now we can take care of that pesky boulder by cheering it up.



*mumble* *murmur*...









Leave it to Lucas to cheer that old boulder right up!





Next up is a mini-puzzle.





There are two Horizontiboulder and a Vertiboulder. Take a guess what they do.



Obviously they won't move if you're blocking their path.



It's very easy to brute force and this doesn't come up again so you kinda wonder what the point is other than another excuse to talk to boulders.



Next screen is where we start meeting some new enemies.





Looks like there's a new breed of Titany that can fly now. They hit decently strong and apparently can use Hypnosis but otherwise are not that impressive. They're a bit weak to Freeze, and of course with Duster back we can exploit stuff like Wall Staples and the Siren Beetle to our hearts' content.







Next up is Mrs. Lava.





Yeah, you probably want to exercise caution fighting her, as she has no problems using Fire Gamma on you, potentially setting party members on fire in the process. You can see with Duster's damage how the Fire Pendant comes in handy for this area.



She's obviously weak to Freeze, so make use of that for sure. This one attack almost took out her entire HP pool.





There's some dangerous enemies about, but this is actually pretty easy as far as dungeons go. It's only two whole screens long, both of which are pretty linear, and there's a place you can heal up on the way. Most of the enemies hitting hard isn't a big deal considering all this.



Along the way, two pigmasks end up talking to each other because pigmasks do that.

Hey, you hear about Mr. Fassad? Apparently, he's undergone a HUGE makeover to change his image.
Yeah, I heard about that! Apparently, he's made some pretty hardcore changes to himself sound-wise. Sounds like we better find that Needle fast before he starts yelling at us even louder than before. And this time, he's got horns, no less.







Then we get into a trivial fight with these guys again so it's not worth talking about it.





Next up is the inside of the volcano, the second screen of the two-screen dungeon, and there's some more enemies within.





Pyreflies are pretty weak, both HP-wise as it barely hits 300, and attack-wise since, while it can breathe fire on the entire party, it does negligible damage.



But it can summon more flies, and dealing with several of them can be troublesome, so no need to play around with them.







Both guides I'm using say this guy's no threat.



It can attack twice for less damage combined than one of Sky Titany's attacks, and of course it can make you feel strange, which the only scary thing that can happen is party members succumbing to Kumatora's ravenous appetite for sweets.



Offense Up Omega affects the entire party, as you probably expect. And as you also probably expect, this is pretty useful and cuts down on a lot of pre-battle buff time.







Finally, there's Magman.





It can be pretty nasty, though he doesn't deal as much as Mrs. Lava. He makes up for it by having higher HP and being able to summon Pyreflies, so you don't want to treat him lightly either.







There's a couple side-rooms to this area with loot. The western room has a Magic Butterfly that respawns every time you reenter the room, so you can easily heal your party with PSI and then restore PP to full. Pretty handy, as you may expect.



These are always nice.



At any rate, it doesn't take long to find the next Needle.



And no Masked Man in sight, either! We should have this in the-









Fassad's back, and he's undergone a few changes since last time.





Also, he made a friend.





"Because of you, I feel more beautiful, newer, and more wonderful than ever before, but I will not thank you." is what Fassad just said.



"...Threw me off Blunder Tower?" I'm sorry, I don't understand...Ah. "...off Thunder Tower."



He goes on to say, "The resulting shame, pain, and woe are humiliating. VERY humiliating. Therefore, I would very much like to return the favor in full."



To be fair, though, Fassad kinda threw himself off Blunder Tower.


Ya big doof.



"I do not believe I will ever lose to the likes of you again... Nwehehehehe!" is what Fassad says. "Now let us begin, kind sirs. I will show a mature, grownup terribleness. And that terribleness is a very mature and grownup terribleness."











Fassad's back, and he's even angrier and more bitter than before. You can expect a tough fight.





You can also expect me to do the same thing as with every big battle, though with Duster back to help with the debuffs and Lucas now being able to cast Offense Up, Defense Up, and Shield on all four characters in one round each, it doesn't take nearly as long anymore.



New Fassad starts with a shield up and has no problem reapplying it, so make sure Boney still has the Shield Snatcher (not that it should ever leave his inventory to begin with).







New Fassad's biggest thing is that he can take two actions a turn, which is good because otherwise this fight would be a joke. He can shoot several beams out, for instance, though I believe Shield will reduce the damage from these.





He can also render Duster a dirty fleabag.





New Fassad also has no problem using his own knock-off version of PK Flash, potentially rendering multiple party members in tears.



Duster and Boney stay on the offense for the most part, while Lucas and Kumatora stay on healing HP and status effects, with the occasional physical attack from Lucas or PK Thunder Beta from Kumatora.



When he does this, you better be ready.







This does massive damage to the entire party, though it takes two turns to go through. Thus a reminder to keep holding onto those healing items and make sure you give most of them to Duster and Boney since they don't have PSI to heal themselves and we still don't have multi-target healing yet.







Once he's low on HP, New Fassad will start scarfing down his favorite food, restoring a bit chunk of HP. Shouldn't be too hard to knock him back down though.



Keep wailing on him and you should win just fine.



And of course he has a 100% chance drop of a Luxury Banana.





Fassad also says, "I will humbly make you pay for this." And he says it with intense emotion. I believe it is an anger-filled emotion.







And with that, the Needle is ours.





So let's do this.











The usual lightshow and special effects occur. We've seen three needles pulled already, you know what happens.



And another needle means another new PSI technique. This costs a whopping 35PP, but it also deals 450-480 damage, which is rather insane.





Looks like Phrygia woke up before her time has ended after all.



I saw the Needle get pulled. That leaves 3 more left. Unlike the other Magypsies, I'm very detail-oriented. I'll tell you about the Needles and then disappear. One Needle is on Tanetane Island, south of Tazmily. I believe Mixolydia is protecting it. Another Needle is in Chupichuyoi Temple, deep in the Oriander Mountains. I believe Ionia is protecting it. I think you already know this, of course, but it's said that the heart of whoever pulls the Needles is passed on to the Dark Dragon... Instill the power of power, the darkness of darkness, and the light of light into your spirit. Let me peer into your eyes.



I wrote down everything I just told you in this secret notebook. Take it with you.



That'd be handy if I didn't pay $30 for a custom guide.



The Needle said to be sticking out of the Dark Dragon's head... I can't seem to locate it at all. Nor Locria, who's supposed to protect that particular Needle... I'm so picky about details, yet I have no idea where they are... Having to disappear without finding out... It's a little bit sad.

Locria was mentioned before way back in Chapter 1 as being the only one of the Magypsies to not appear at Aeolia's party.



A razor and lipstick... Please take good care of them, okay?





You know, I haven't actually used any of these yet. Hell, I don't think I've had anyone get KOed this entire chapter so far. That may change later on, of course.



You can expect to see more of me in your dreams from now on. *giggle* Goodbye!



So now we're 2-2 against the Masked Man as far as the Needles are concerned. Next time, we'll make our way back to Tazmily so we can get the edge on him!