Part 9: Screenshot Update 9: Manna Manna
Screenshot Update 9: Manna MannaIt's the last stretch before the endgame, and we've got a ton of sidequest-y things to do first! These first seven screenshots are actually from before we fought Shadar - everything else is from after we cleared the Black Crystals from the three kingdoms.
We begin, as always, with our merchant friends.
They were never heard from again.
Also we get an alchemical formula for (I think) a new gun for Swaine. One of the parts was dropped by Porco Loco in the previous video, but another, Blowpipe, we won't see until we've gotten to the final dungeon.
Prior to fighting Shadar, Old Father Oak eschewed giving us anything useful like an item, instead opting for sheer positivity.
Jumping into post-Manna content, we get into a rare non-Bounty Hunt bounty hunt. This guard has lost an important symbol of his job to a monster hiding out in the overworld, and we need to follow its tracks to find it.
Inspecting the tracks will guide you in the general direction of the next set of footprints. If you've played Don't Starve, it's sort of like hunting Koalefants, except the monster isn't going anywhere.
Been a long time since I've needed to use Bridge. And it ain't the last time, surprisingly enough!
After briefly losing track of the trail, we come across a likely suspect. Drippy certainly seems confident, and I mean, it is a cat.
Bugger.
Yep, if you look closely at the myriad sets of footprints around the area, they are of different monsters. It's possible to forget what the tracks we're supposed to be following look like and end up killing an innocent monster. Luckily, the real one we're hunting is actually close by.
Hence why I call this one of the rare non-Bounty Hunt bounty hunts. He's basically the same as his cousins.
I.E.: More health than difficulty.
I also give Shiro?! a chance to fight again, and he finishes the big guy off handily.
Our reward is another Radiant Blade, which as mentioned earlier recovers a small amount of health whenever it successfully lands a hit. I give it to Dumple, and it basically makes me immortal in standard monster fights.
Here's a weird one. It's this guy again, and he's in need of another model.
We'll get to that in a bit, but it's time to play delivery boy. Since we've seen almost all of the areas in the game (with NPCs), it's time for the game to give a reason to go back there.
The first few are pretty simple and of people easy to find.
...who is hiding all the way in the back of the cove.
Jumping back to Con's sidequest, the girl he's looking for is in a forest far south of Yule and West of Old Smoky on Turtle Crag Island.
That's her on the left, but like every forest, there're chests to open first.
I could only find the one though. Peculiar, 'cause every other forest has at least two.
Once you've talked to her, you warp immediately back to Con, and the reason this is a weird sidequest becomes clear.
Please don't do that. You're younger than Oliver.
Thanks for being as far away as possible, asshole.
Next curry goes to the guy Swaine strong-armed in Hamelin, but first I check on this dozy guy wallowing about outside Swift Solutions.
This is another multipart quest. The first two parts are items to help the guy wake up.
Go figure, the first one doesn't work. Actual sleepiness isn't a status ailment, fella. (Then again, he's been sleepy for over a year. Seriously.)
Since I lost control of my life.
Also grab yet another purple chest I forgot about. There's more hidden in the tribal forests that I forgot, and I will get those in future screenshot updates.
If you don't have a cappuccino with you, they're purchasable from the peddler in Perdida. Good item to have anyway, if you've got the money for it - by now you'll have way more magic and magic-draining spells than Strong Coffee can possibly replenish on its own.
He must be like me. Caffeine doesn't seem to affect me at all.
I just so happen to have one already.
I don't realize this until after I've finished this sidequest, so we'll come back to it. It's time for more curry.
I thought the customer was the skeleton hiding in the mine East of Hamelin, but it's actually this bartender hiding in the back of the Casino.
Off to yet another forest we haven't explored yet, and I will be exploring all of them by the end of the LP. This one is actually right behind where I killed the Puss in Boats earlier.
And that's it for Raj and his curry.
If you don't remember it from earlier, Tikka Mahala is an excellent healing item. I don't know if I use it much for the rest of this LP, but it's a good thing the game has stocked me up with it now. It's a big help for the fucking cannons that are the bosses we'll be fighting in the final area.
Like I mentioned, I didn't know I already had a familiar that knew Rise and Shine, so I had to level up my KAEPORASS (the owl) to level 7, at which point he learns it naturally.
I take the chance to grab the other most useful Merit Reward at this point in the game.
The reduction in magic cost is small, only around 1-4 MP, but the benefit adds up quickly, especially if you already got Jack the Giant Killer to boost Oliver's stats +100.
Post-Manna, Old Father Oak has one last present to give us.
He has one more set of dialogue for right before we fight the final boss, but this is the last instance of him giving us anything.
I accidentally came across another weapon alchemy formula, this time for a new harp for Esther (which I also can't make yet). The Xanaduvian guard at the entrance of Perdida will give it to you after he dumps his relief at Khulan's recovery on you. Which I didn't record because getting the formula caught me off guard.
Decided to grind outside Perdida for a bit, since much to my dismay, the much better grinding spot of the Miasma Marshes gets closed off after you kill Shadar...
...Or it was the better grinding spot, until I discovered this guy. This is the Tokotoko I mentioned in the videos. They're rare monsters with not a lot of health...
...have a tendency to run away from fights if you don't kill them quickly...
...and do that to your experience bars. Yep, the Tokotoko has inexplicably the most Exp of any monster including most bosses, excluding its own metamorphosed form that can be found in the final dungeon. So I spend almost all of the rest of the grinding I do in this LP right here outside Perdida.
Funnily enough, its baby form, the Toko, can be found on the islands West of the Summerlands, and the amount of Exp they give is piddling.
Also grabbed this guy, because Tomodachi Life reference. Which was in-itself a reference to this LP. We've come full circle.
One neat thing, despite Miasma Marshes and Nevermore being locked again, we can see Nevermore in its pretty green form now when you fly over with Tengri.
Next I grab a green chest I missed in a previous excursion into the forest East of Ding Dong Dell.
Then I move to another missed forest chest East of Castaway Cover.
Night Blade is the opposite of Radiant Blade, damaging the user as well as the opponent. I forgo using it.
Another forest we haven't seen yet is right by Old Smoky, on a tiny island you need Tengri to reach.
It's surprisingly the most bustling (and well-lit) of any forest we've seen yet.
Next new forest is perhaps the most interesting of them all.
It's actually a cave cut into the side of the mountain, and it's filled with fairies talking with a woman who has apparently had access to Oliver's world.
There's also this double act in the making.
That makes two things in Ni no Kuni that are actually funny.
Grab the purple chest, head back to Billy Goat Bluffs for some more Tokotoko hunting, and...
COME TO MAMA!
I appreciate that you still get Exp when you capture the monster instead of just when you kill it.
Not that it looks like Totoro. I just amused myself too much with the pun.
And the last thing for this update is a surprise achievement. Once you've leveled Esther to 65, you unlock the last of her special abilities, which nets you the Prima Donna achievement on PSN. Oliver and Swaine have their own all-ability achievements as well, but I already got Oliver's in my first playthrough of the game, and I unlock Swaine's later in the LP.
Next time: Nazcaä and The Ivory Tower