Part 86: Episode LXXXI: Wendy
Episode LXXXI: WendyMusic: Cold Steel Coffin ~ Battle
Meet the eldritch abomination that will be serving as the boss of the Sacrifice quest: Wendy. Not exactly the most appropriate name for a swirling mass of pulsating darkness with a great big menacing eye at its center. But, it is keeping up with The Aerie's Peter Pan naming conventions, so there you have it...
While we were busy battling the horde of Shades pouring into The Aerie off where Kainé was greeted with a grievous Cutscene Injury™ that put her out of commission for the duration of this battle, Wendy was busy devouring every man, woman, and child unlucky enough to be roaming about out in The Aerie. We're pretty much literally fighting The Aerie's collective xenophobic asses at this point. This should be fun...
"Is this the true power of the Shades?"
"It will take more than a barrage of magic to stop us! The first to waver is the first to die!"
"Wait! Stop! I think those are people!" "Hold nothing back! Those are Shades!"
As you may have guessed, the massive eye on the surface of Wendy is its weak point. Dark Lances and Blasts are essential to taking out Wendy's quickly moving sensory organ.
Like most creatures, Shade or no, Wendy does most definitely not appreciate getting poked in its eye and will unleash an insanely dense bullet storm after taking a few lances to its squishy parts. It's best to keep mobile as much as possible during the battle, lest Nier get overwhelmed by magic eye gunk orbs.
The "bulbs" wrapping around Wendy's core are all completely invulnerable to Weiss' magic and Wendy will do its best to swat away any attempts made on it utilizing them. But...that is not all they are good for...
Wendy can also slam the ends of the bulbs into the platform in both a bid to smash Nier into a pulp as well as spawning Shades with each impact. Apparently Wendy got a bit hungry and gobbled up a bit of its Shade brethren as well. Lucky for the Shades, apparently they can be separated from the Wendy collective without any noticeable harm. Huh...maybe if we beat the shit out of this thing quick enough we can still save the villagers like when Emil was eaten earlier. Being devoured by monsters seems to be just a mild inconvenience in NIER's world...
The Shades that Wendy's tentacles crap out are all extremely weak cannon fodder that die in a single hit. They're pretty much blood bags for refilling Nier's MP gauge and little else of note.
An Attack Gauge will eventually appear when Wendy's health drops to 50%. Does it really matter if we destroy half of The Aerie with Finishers this time...?
Nier goes the Three Stooges route and uses an oversized Dark Hand to poke out Wendy's eye.
But, Nier should know better than to go for the crowning blow so early. Come on...it still has 50% health left, guy... Wendy quickly counters with the old
Nier still manages to rip-apart Wendy's bulbs briefly, leaving the core completely exposed. But, he's about spent with the blood surplus for this Finisher.
However, that doesn't mean we're done with the offensive. Nier and Weiss might be spent. But, this is the first time we've fought a massive uber-Shade in Act 2 of the game. I think it's high time we had our little Ultimate Weapon Number 7 buddy to test out his skills, hmmm?
Emil hops in and performs some rather experimental magic laser eye surgery on Wendy...
...the results are quite impressive. Wendy immediately recoils in pain and completely wraps itself in its shell. I think Emil might have stung the thing a bit. Where's an oversized shadow version of Ben Stein when you need him?
Unfortunately, Emil's overdrive Hadoken seems to have inspired Wendy for the next leg of the battle. In addition to the bullet hell and tentacle bulb Shade spawner, Wendy has a new trick up its err...tentacle bulb Shade spawner sleeve analog...
OPTIC BLAST! Ergh...well, I say that... But Wendy's eye is actually now in the opposite direction. So that makes this doom laser an ergh...rectal blast...? Eww... Shades might be sentient or something...but they're damn gross. Especially all the ones hailing from The Aerie...
After a bit of dodging and weaving away from Wendy's rather damaging anal laser beam, Emil will charge up another magic blast of his own and engage the creature in a Dragonball Z-esque fireball dual while Nier and Weiss flank behind the thing to attack its open eye.
"Emil!" "Ngh... I'll...I'll keep it busy! You...should be able to attack...from behind... Go around... Get it...! Please! Hurry!" "The lad can take care of himself. We must circle to the creature's rear!"
All the Shades in the area have dispersed...or perhaps been sucked into the legion that is Wendy. In any case, the path is clear for Nier to scramble up behind it the Shade while it's busy battling Emil. Nier needs to circle around and climb up to the bridge leading to The Aerie Chief's house to attack the weak point.
Wendy is quite occupied focusing its energy blast duel with Emil, leaving its main defense of its eye up to a rather weak barrage of slow, standard energy bullets.
No Attack Gauge this time. Wendy simply retreats to the first Boss Battle Platform™ to take a breather from the two pronged ass kicking it just received. Alright, it's out of fighting areas to fall back toward. Time to finish this damned thing.
Rushing over to the final arena...
"We beat the hell out of that thing! How can it still move?" "Its combined powers are beyond even my greatest suspicion..."
There is nothing really new to be said about the final leg of the fight. Wendy gets a bit more generous with the use of its optic blast and tentacle smashing. But, it has used just about all its tricks already. All that is required is to pound on the thing until another Attack Gauge appears.
Nier busts out the seldom seen mega-drill lance for the final Finisher on Wendy. Shucks. I was hoping we'd get a Dark Gluttony finisher in which Nier stands around idly and wastes all his MP without accomplishing anything of note.
"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!!!!"
The Mega Dark Lance alone is not quite enough to penetrate Wendy's shell. Time for a double-team attack, me thinks...
"HAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"
And with Emil and Nier's powers combined, the power of shit ruining is...
...ACTIVATED! Nier and Emil really need to do some more team-up Finishers in the future.
...Seriously. I'm not even sure how a giant magic drill spear combined with Force Lightning manages to erupt into a spiked ball of doom whilst embedded in the face of an enemy. But, it is metal as shit.
All in all, damn fine job taking out that thing. Urgh...yo... Emil... Why are we in FMV mode now...? That thing couldn't have been deader after that Finisher... Uhh... Emil...? Everything okay, little buddy...?
"Emil? Emil, wait!" "AaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Emil proceeds to blow the FUCK up, sending Nier and Weiss flying across the area.
The ball of pure energy he produces begins expanding slowly across the area, engulfing and disintegrating the still blood fountain producing Wendy in the process.
"He's gone! His instincts have taken hold!"
"The ultimate weapon is being deployed!"
Uhh...well, so much for saving any of the villagers absorbed by Wendy... Well, maybe some of the few still in their homes that weren't devoured by the creature will be alright....?
...Nevermind.
Kainé wakes up from her nap just in time to see the village she grew up in and has defended from Shades for years get completely fragged by her out of control WMD best bud. That's certainly a bit of a sight to see first thing in the morning...
Don't ask me how Kainé ends up back on the other side of the canyon with Nier. Magic! Besides...
...there are slightly more pressing issues for everyone to concern themselves with at current.
Like the fact one should never, ever piss off Emil unless they'd like their entire zip code to be erased from existence... Holy shit kid!
Some time later...
Music: Emil ~ Sacrifice (Emil's Theme)
Welp...our quest has just leaded us to wiping an entire town off the map and killing every single person in it. The gang is notably a bit numb after causing the death of several hundred somewhat assholish, but otherwise innocent people. Well, other than Emil who's just sobbing over his actions.
"...What have I done? I killed innocent people... I killed them all." <sob>
"But you saved our lives." "...Huh?" "...Didn't you? If it wasn't for you, we'd all be dead. We owe you." "But...but I..." "It's all right."Nier stands up and walks to the cliff's edge...
"Don't look back."
...There is no way this story is ending well, is there?
I guess... Well, I guess we'll know soon enough... This is it... We're finally done... At least things can't get much worse... Right...?
Wendy ~ Full Boss Battle
Wendy Battle Highlights and Sacrifice Conclusion (You should watch this!)
Wendy Concept Illustration