The Let's Play Archive

Ni no Kuni

by ThornBrain

Part 18: Screenshot Missions 9: The Conductor's Rifts 3/3

Screenshot Missions 9: The Conductor's Rifts 3/3

Here we are, folks. Time to finish off this nearly two year old LP.

For this game's last hurrah, we get a couple pretty cool refights. The first one sends us all the way back to Nevermore.



Shadar?! No.



This time the Conductor is waiting for us in the marsh.




If that's true, I suspect he has a habit of fucking with people.




Here's another good memory. Even if the dungeon itself was a little obtuse, it was easily the best section of the game.
You could come back here before you got the Reckless Soldier bounty, but the door wouldn't open.




One fun thing I found is that I'm so stupid strong that Astra kills everything in one go.



You'll also notice that Gogo beat everyone else to the level cap. Not even Dumple reaches 99 by the end of the LP.



I resort to more Veil, because fuck fighting at my level, and I take the left, vomitous path here that I missed first time and find a chest.




Seems a bit... awesome for a red chest?



Thankfully the stairwells are still here, so I don't spend much time at all in Nevermore.




The Conductor straight-up told you, which I guess is this game's way of showing that Drippy doesn't really pay attention.



Our rift fight is an interesting twist, even if it's pathetically easy and decidedly not Shadar. It's Evil Dumple, which you'll recall was actually part 2 of the Shadar fight. This isn't the last time we refight a single section of a multi-part fight either.



Knight Terror (admittedly a pun that works on multiple levels, so I'm okay with it) doesn't have a lot of health, and Onslaught doesn't come up too often. In fact, do the most damage and stay away from him, and you can end up just kiting him around the arena while your friends take pot shots at him.



The only thing that drags the fight out is his constant buffing, but it still doesn't last very long.



Onslaught's still rough, but even 200 damage isn't too much to worry about at our level.



It also practically rains blue and green glims, so I never needed to refill my magic the entire fight.




Godspeed, you red heart-lacky.



Final rift time!




Uh... you mean like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE?!



Don't let the name mislead you.




This can be one of the hardest fights in the game, so have lots of recovery items with you. I hoarded all of mine, so I'm willing to be more liberal with them for this.



It's the Zodiarchblob!

This fight is a bastard, because we don't get a Black Orb Cassiopeia (Andromeda perhaps? Man, I wanna know what she would have looked like now) to help us out. This means no Nix, and that means...



...to defend right away, goddamnit!





Esther puts way too much faith in Gogo. Using an Evading familiar leaves her with way too small of a defense window.



No reason to use Evenstar for taking out the satellites this time. Astra is better in every way.




Just a few of them and the satellites are down.




I once again find myself acting as backup healer. Esther can't maintain everyone at the speed needed to offset all the damage you receive.




Here's an item I never use but is pretty cool. Dews recover all three characters.




Still missing Cassiopeia. And wondering what her counterpart would be named. Betelgeuse? Blegh...



This fight can end much the same way as the original: me trying to keep away from the satellites and waiting for the right moment to attack the Zodiarchangel without getting caught in another Chaos.



The anticlimax tradition lives on!



That's all of the rifts! And that's the conclusion of this screenshot update.




But wait, we're still not done?

Surprise secret boss! (and video update)



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Well folks, this concludes my setback-plagued, life-shattering LP of Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
Since we talked enough in the last few videos about the game overall, I thought I'd give my closing thoughts here about the thread and the LP itself. For one, thanks everyone for sticking around and being patient with the constant hardware-related setbacks and other various reasons this thing almost lasted two years. I'm still astonished this thing started back during Skyward Sword, and a lot changed during the course of it - I got a hardcore gaming PC, my friendships and relationships shuffled, I'm in a loving relationship with a woman who I met because of these LPs, the neighbor dogs who plagued my life for 6-7 years finally moved out. It's been a ride.
I'm still constantly learning, and you can easily notice things changing from video to video and screenshot update to screenshot update, whether it be visually or just in our commentary. But as much pain as the game has caused me (which was embellished, admittingly), I'm glad I did this LP. I never did anything with screenshots before, let alone a hybrid LP of a long-ass JRPG, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The pre-Vault of Tears updates look comparably like shit, sure, but there's no replacing the fun we had with no-personality sociopath Oliver, Dumpster Dracula Swaine, sex god/chef Shadaaaaahhhrrr, and most of all, Siri.

It was a fun LP, and I thank you for sticking it out with me. Now go listen to some Brian Protheroe.