Part 6: Why does everyone else have all the good shit?

Music: Aquaria



So here we are in Aquaria. As you might have guessed, the place is completely frozen over. First stop is the inn for a quick rest, and inside we meet this fellow.



Arms dealers. God bless 'em.



There's a unique looking plant here. This won't be important at all, no sirree.



On the North side of town, there's a woman selling another piece of armor. 200 GP is pocket change, so go for it.





The Steel Helm is another first-level piece of armor that does nothing but increase defense, and its upgrades are decidedly less impressive than all the other armor pieces, so it's nothing to really get excited about. The plot demands we head to Phoebe's house to continue, so away we go.




the Libra Crest which warps us from the Libra Temple to the Life Temple.



We'll get there soon enough.



First, a battlefield along the way.



Edgehogs are fairly annoying, but far from the worst we'll see this update. They can blind and paralyze, but that's about all, and since Phoebe has the Heal spell, it's not nearly as big of a deal to get nailed with status conditions that persist.



One day a battlefield is going to have something GOOD.

Music: Wintry Cave



So, Wintry Cave. It's a short, easy dungeon that you can run through and only fight about 10 enemies if you really want to, but the enemies do give pretty good exp, so I recommend at least cleaning out the rooms you have to go through, if not the whole dungeon.



Land Worms are the Sand Worms' big brothers. They've picked up Quake, which can do about 140 damage to both characters, but that's about it. Still weak to axes, so knock them out quickly.



Nothing suspicious about this, nothing at all.



FFFFFFUUU-





Phoebe decides that maybe it's okay if we don't get killed by falling off of shit in the future and gives us her claw.



The Claw family of weapons is the weakest in the game, but it makes up for it but causing status effects, and boosting our magic slightly. The final claw is a glorious sight to behold, as anyone who has ever played this game can attest to.



Turns out Phoebe also was hiding the good stuff. It's another limited ammo weapon, but it damn near doubles her damage and inflicts blindness.



The claws are pretty basic. Approach a wall covered in the footstep-esque things, hold A, and you can climb right up them.



These guys are gigantic assholes. They absolutely love to spam Riddle, and we all know what confusion can do to party members. Combine that with Phoebe doing 300-odd damage with her weapon (God help you if she chooses Thunder instead), and things get ugly very fast. What's more is they love to come in groups of at least two, sometimes with a Land Worm or a third one tagging along.



Sparnas are upgraded Rocs. They've picked up Iron Nail, which lowers defense, and Tornado, which does about 140 damage to one person, but are still weak to shooting attacks, and have low HP anyway.



Phoebe, having a shooting weapon which already did a fuckton of damage, has a field day with these guys. A critical attack does hilarious amount of damage to them.



Final new enemy is the Land Turtle. He's got a lot of HP, but that's about all that's impressive about him. Weak to thunder and axe attacks, so go to town on him.



The ultimate goal of the dungeon is to get in here, underneath the ice, but there's another path in the main room that will dump you out on top of the ice with an item box and a few enemies. A few more enemy slaughterings, and we're at the boss.



The Squidite is a pathetically easy filler boss. He'll usually start off the fight with Electrapulse, which lowers your magic. Thunder-spamming still works, but you're probably better off just spamming the bow once you get hit by it.



His other attacks include Choke Up, which will hit both characters for moderate damage, Sucker, which will drain a small amount of health from both characters, Blackness, which blinds, and 6 Pseudopods, which hits hard if all 6 connect, but is otherwise unnoteworthy.



He's not exactly difficult. I put him down in 4-5 turns, and if it takes you any longer, you're probably doing something wrong, or horribly underleveled.


There's a mark there that looks just like the design on the Crest. Stand on it, and we'll be warped to the Life Temple!



And with that, we've concluded the first fetch quest in the game.

Next Time: Life Temple and Falls Basin