Part 10: Screenshot Missions 1: Monster Mash

Post-Game Screenshot Missions 1: Monster Mash

With Cassiopeia defeated and a special save file made, it's time to get to climbing the mountain of post-game material!








We'll touch on the casino a little bit down the line, and the Solosseum will have its own two-part set of updates nearer the end of the LP. 'Cause it gets hard as balls.



You have no idea.




This is just what they give you to start. We unlock more as we finish the quests and bounty hunts. This particular update will focus on the bounty hunts, but since I recorded all of these next 9 updates at roughly the same time, there might be some back-and-forth with other disparate elements like chests or what-have-you.



However, in another strange mix of the two, it's time to never see Derwin ever again.





Derwin sends us out to places between towns that are easiest to get to on Tengri (like you're surprised). If you're not sure where the location he gives you is, open up the map and it will give you your location's name. Jack Frost's Playground is south of Yule.



Before that, though, I came across one of the bounties up behind the Deep Dark Wood. It's an Ulk, one of those guys that nearly trampled us in the very beginning of the game!



They have fuzzy chests.

They also fuck you up pretty easily.



Many of our fights today are high-HP, low-difficulty. The Ulk is an exception, as it also has the attack power to back up its defense. It's two special attacks are Wallop, which flies in a straight line, and Incredible Ulk, which homes in on you and is such a bad pun that it makes puppies die.





Powerful and graceful.




Wallop not so much.



There will be a long trend of long or tough fights ending anticlimactically. Thank you Jules.



Since the bounties are spread out across the game world, I'll be popping back and forth between fighting them and turning them in at Swift Solutions. You'll notice that I do not get merit reward stamps for this fight! Only a few post-game missions and hunts do, since there's only a few merit rewards left, but they give you 8-10 stamps when they do.



Next fight is the last time we fight one of the magma singers.



She brings nothing new to the table.



Except for a pair of sweet shades. And a chance for Shiro to ice-burn her crotch. She also has a lot of health but low difficulty, so the fight stretches long enough for her to drop some Golden Glims. I figured we should finally see what Shiro's and R's special moves are.

Shiro's is a team heal.





And R's is...



worthless.




Gogo and I end up finishing her off handily.

While heading to turn Magmadiva in to Swift Solutions, I finally notice this side path that I've never taken in the entire LP.





I hope you weren't waiting in too much anticipation for that.



The items you get for most of these bounties are used in alchemy and are decently rare otherwise. Some of them you can get from the monsters in the Ivory Tower.



Derwin's mission also has us fight new types of monsters we've already fought before. If any part of this LP teaches you how lazy the devs got with the special monsters, this one will.




Mornstar his face. And every other monster we face today, for that matter. Nothing seems to be resistant to it.



It is weak to fire though, so I scream at it a bit.



And then finish it off with a light-slap.

After each of these three fights, Derwin himself appears out of nowhere to congratulate you and then tell you where the next one is.





He then disappears, and the next miniboss spawns. Well done to you if you kill one of these monsters and then try to find him in Ding Dong Dell.



Our next guy is in the mountains between the Vault of Tears and Al Mamoon. It's another statue guy.



Like its cousins, it's weak to storm attacks, so I unleash some of my old friends on it for the majority of the fight.





Being overpowered should be more satisfying than this.




Autumnia is so dreary that even its puns are depressing.




That's the saddest yet most hardcore turtle I've ever seen. Sadcore.




Mornstar it to death.



Swaine is psyched 'cause I finally switched him back out. For every single fight I've done so far, including all the ones I've cut out or saved for later screenshot updates, Marcassin has used Ward constantly. Well done game for finding a way to make me hate a character I like.





Whoa mama. These are familiar tickets - we take them to the Temple of Trials and exchange them with Solomon for familiars we can't get anywhere else. In fact, you'll recall we fought the Lumberwood as one of the unique bounty hunts! You'll also recall I said we got the Dinoceros from the Solosseum; my bad, you actually get it from Derwin, but I turn all of these in at the Solosseum anyway.

Also yes, we never see that twat Derwin ever again.



Returning to Ding Dong Dell yet again (which I go back to the most for these fights due to the cheapness of the inn), I talk to the Familiar Retreat Rep, who once again has some post-boss rewards for us.




Thanks, sweety~
_{Yes, I've half-mindedly started thinking of this guy as Olivia. Blame Travis. And Olivia.}






Good stuff, but little of which I ever use.



Next bounty is another Collum, right next to where you appear when you warp to the Ara Memoriae.





Shine a light.



Another bounty is east of Hamelin, in front of the mine I wandered into previously with that lone skeleton and all the barrels of rum.




Shellshocker's only special move is this, which didn't appear to heal it or increase its defense in any noticeable way, so I'm not exactly sure what it did.



Bop!




I noticed that the bounty hunts that actually give stamps also give you items you can use immediately. The stampless bounties give you alchemy items. Makes me wonder why these particular fights were given these rewards. It's not like any other bounties aside from the Ulk are interesting or unique, and these two certainly weren't either.



In the bottom-left corner of the overworld, I came across an island I hadn't been to before.




It's an island full of NPC familiars! They each have mini-quests of sorts that you undertake for rewards, but they don't get added to your journal.



This is the only familiar I ultimately don't help. Sprockets are incredibly rare drops, and I don't have the patience for rare drop-based missions. Keep that in mind for a later update.




These swords are easy to get. The Cawtermaster in Ding Dong Dell sells them.





Luckily I already have the cakes they want.






Maybe one of these days I'll actually use these Sage's Secrets.



This Toko hangs out in the back, looking over his little friends like their leader. The joke here is that you use Nature's Tongue to talk to these creatures, but he still talks to you in "toko's".





Actually kind of funny toilet humour!




Luckily I already caught a mushroom type monster outside of Perdida while grinding Tokotokos. I still need to recover it from the retreat though.



Just as I leave the cave, I run into the reason I came to this island in the first place: a bounty hunt whale.



Fucking die.




Thank you.



Dropped by Al Mamoon to see how the distance between the inn and Swift Solutions compares to Ding Dong Dell, and I grabbed Murdoc here in the meantime. I was listening to Gorillaz a lot while recording these.




Jack-o'-Lantern II sounds like it'd be quite useful for those rare drop-based quests. An Adam Ant comeback album sounded like a good idea too.




I'm buying swords for cats. Something seems wrong about this.



More like Smoggy Fuk.




Shine a light.




And break a wind.



There's a few bounties surrounding this island, The Spindle. It's right nearby where we fought the Shellshocker earlier.



The Lone Shark yet again requires us to use the boat instead of Tengri.



Okay, I actually like that pun. The darker the better.




During the fight I earn the Glim Reaper trophy for the fuckton of Glims I've collected this entire LP.



Sharky occasionally delays the inevitable by healing itself, but not nearly often enough or strongly enough to offset all the damage I do.





Still slightly baffled by the boss/reward decisions made here. It's like the stamp fights are intended as "the ultimate" of that particular monster line, but we're still fighting new versions.



On the other hand, we do get a new, interesting, and decently challenging bounty with this guy.



Warbird is a tough and tough-looking bastard who likes to Nix you...




...and steal your gilders.





And no, you don't get back what he steals after the fight. At the very least I think I earned enough to offset the loss, but it's still a good way to make me want to kill you quickly.





Respectably tough, but we never see another of his kind again. Genocide!



Yet another Collum, though strategically placed on Solitary Isle, that one island we can only reach with Tengri.



"I'ma kick your ass!"



"Oh no! AIR!"




At the very least he knows "Haymaker", which is a decently strong attack if you don't dodge it.



Throughout these recordings, I combed my way throughout every single map in the game that I could to sniff out all the chests and things I missed. In the process, I drop by Old Father Oak for his very last bit of gift-free dialogue.




Good thing I already won. Now give me another Nostrum. More like Old Fucker Oak.




Even if the fights themselves are underwhelming, turning in bounties is always satisfying.



Yet another bubbly blubber guy nearby Yule, this one on Scrooge Island.




Dumple gets a brief chance to shine.




Then I do the rest of the shining myself.




These last several screenshots are from much later in my recordings, but I make my way through Deep Dark Wood back to where I fought the boss, in the meantime grabbing these last two chests I missed.



It's been so long since Iced Coffee was useful. Ah, memories.

So why even am I going back to the boss-



Wha-...?



Stay tuned for boss refights in upcoming screenshot updates!

Next time: Post-Game Sidequests!