Part 8: Like Father, Like Son
8. Like Father, Like Son
The thread has spoken and Reuben will keep his Fire resistance. Here are his normal stats.
At Tuxedo Ted’s request, we’ll be switching back to the scale for our life meter. It’s good timing because I assume Reuben has a tough time with numbers or anything that’s not smacking something really hard.
I also totally lied about saving Reuben’s dad. We’ve got cool stuff to get first. It’s not like he’s going anywhere! The prize for this Battlefield is 900GP and that’s great now that we can buy seeds.
I’m also pretty far behind as far as level goes so it’d be a good idea for me to power Shrug up.
Our first enemy du jour is the Jelly and they’re about as threatening as their Level Forest cousins. Dissolve can hit pretty hard if it’s a critical, but otherwise it’s pretty forgettable. They’re weak to bombs, but frankly that’s a waste of a Mega Grenade when Reuben can take them out in one hit.
These guys don’t actually get a field sprite. These Battlefields are the only place you’ll find them! Truly, the crème de la crème of Mystic Quest monsters. That actually applies to a fair number of enemies here and a couple from past areas.
The prize here is interesting, to say the least.
Up next is the Sting Rat. If you didn’t pick up the Noble Armor, then they could poison you with their new Poison Sting, but that’s also the least of your problems if you didn’t get that armor. They’re Battlefield exclusive.
Here they are once they’ve been shaved or something, I guess.
We can access more of those teleporters in temples and get consumables so...hooray...? Like all Battlefield items, I don’t think this is actually essential to finishing the game but without it our items list wouldn’t be complete and we can’t have that.
The prize here is 800 some EXP. No thanks.
But there’s a new enemy here so we’ll pop in for a bit. Plant Men are about as easily killed as their Level Forest lookalikes. I think they can poison you? They never live long enough to actually do anything. This goes doubly so because Reuben’s mace counts as an axe-type attack for whatever reason. These are Battlefield/enemy group exclusive.
Seriously, you’d have to try really hard to lose here.
The prize here is 1200GP, or 24 seeds in other words.
Flazzards are fire Basilisks, basically. They have a Flame attack, which could probably hurt Shrug a bit and can paralyze Reuben. Like everything else here, though, Reuben takes them out in one hit. They’re one of many enemies here that’s weak to Blizzard.
Blizzard is pretty cute.
This is a very good Battlefield. If you’re going to do any of them in the area, make it this one.
It also introduces the Brownie’s second palette-swap, the Red Caps. These are one of the more annoying enemies to face. They have their usual physical repertoire along with being able to confuse you, but now they can put you to sleep. Reuben’s still taking them out in one hit, so there’s that, and they’re weak to Blizzard.
Shrug can now rightfully call himself a wizard. I’m not sure if it’s stronger than Blizzard when it’s damaging weaknesses, but this is nice nonetheless. Thunder is unique in that it’s the only Wizard spell with which you can actually select a specific enemy to attack.
All right, that’s enough distraction for now, let’s go save Reuben’s idiot father.
I don’t like the Mine. The Falls Basin music is nice, but I just left Aquaria and I’m over it. Compared to Wintry Cave, which was basically a straight shot to where you needed to go, treasure included, the Mine is tedious and sends you on a different path that you wouldn’t normally go to to get the treasure. It’s not easy to get really lost or anything, I just kinda don’t feel like going out of my way like that. I’ve never not picked up the Charm Claw so I wonder if there are any repercussions for when we get the last claw. I doubt it, but who knows.
Anyways, Red Bones are pretty much reskinned Skeletons. Or would it be re-unskinned? I don’t think they’ve picked up any new tricks. They’re weak to Blizzard as well. Just assume everything here is weak to Blizzard unless I mention otherwise.
Yeah, looks like just tossing them works fine. There’s a gauntlet of enemies blocking heal potions and cure potions if you’re a fool, but otherwise nothing else in there.
The other gimmick in the Mine, aside from the conveyor belts, is one-way elevators scattered around the area. I’m not really sure if this is can be called an elevator but whatever.
Those two skeletons are guarding the way to the treasure, so let’s take them out.
Mummies are interesting, I suppose. They can actually multiply if there are any spots open on the battlefield. They can counter with para-touch, which is pretty useless since Shrug is immune and Reuben will kill them in one hit. They can also poison you on occasion but it’s not like Shrug has to worry about that.
They really pile on the new weapons in this section of the game.
Thankfully, this is a fun one. That’s a whole lot of status effects up there! While it’s certainly the weakest weapon we have, being able to poison, blind, paralyze, confuse, and put enemies to sleep is pretty cool.
It also makes the scratches a nice shade of blue so the Charm Claw is alright by me.
That’s the last side room. If you’re hurting for bombs, then you can pick some up in there.
Getting the Charm Claw means that we basically have to go back to the beginning. Taking the southernmost path will get you to this conveyor belt. After that, as long as you don’t take any detours, the conveyor belts will guide you towards the boss.
The
You’re going to want to hope he casts Fire, preferably at Reuben, for the most part. Reuben is going to tank these Fire hits nicely and he has like 23 casts of Life, which is a full heal in case you forgot. I think it’ll be okay.
It was that this point in the fight that I realized that Shrug was falling pretty far behind. Thunder wasn’t hitting for much, Blizzard even less. Beam took off more than half of his health in one shot with 331 damage.
He didn’t use it in this fight, but the Jinn also has Flame Sweep which will hit both party members. I’m not sure how much damage it’d do to Shrug at his level but Reuben will only take like 120.
In case you ran out of explosives or something, the game gives you 20 here so you don’t have to go all the way back. It’s pretty convenient!
Uh, who said you could have one of those?
Wow. Great work, Reuben. I don’t see how that could have gone badly at all.
He tells the two to be careful and heads on his way.
Oh god, please, get me the hell out of here.
No! Who would have thought?!
Before we head off, let’s check out the temple that we can get to with the boulder dislodged.
...what are you doing here?
Whoa whoa whoa, hold the fucking phone.
Are you sure that was an allowance and not just spare change you found on the ground?
Next time: The Crystal of Fire really is in the Lava Dome