Part 29: I hope it breaks! That tiny world of yours!
With all our business in the known world complete, we head to Triste, to explore the unknown world.
K.T.?......
Huh? What? Is anybody there?Voice Over the Gate: ...... Is it Ari? Please come in...
We head into Triste. Of course, to everyone but Ari, it seems to be a completely abandoned city.
We head to the back exit. Ari couldn't pass through when he was completely overshadowed, but there should be nothing stopping us now.
Music: Melody from the Box
Marlene's music box floats out of Ari's pack and into the air over his head.
I'm right here.
Girl's Voice: Where is Ari? I'm here... This is where I really am...
Girl's Voice: I can't get out of here, and it's scary anyways... Because they won't notice me... They don't notice me, Ari...
Come on out.........
Girl's Voice: Who are you? Is it okay to go out there? But still...
The music box vanishes, and we resume control of Ari. Of course, the first thing I do is try to get into that house.
Old Man's Voice: I hope it breaks! That tiny world of yours!
The last time we tried to enter this house, the man said "I'm fed up with helping you with all your lousy make-believe play with your daughter!" and now he wants that "tiny world" of ours to break.
Gee, I wonder who he's mistaking us for?
The old man definitely won't let us into the house, so all that's left to do is leave the city.
Now we go to where no man has gone before.
Something seems to be here. What? Is something ambushing us?Music: The Nightmare
Alas, 'tis the only way I can warn thee within the range of "classification" I am assigned. It's you again. You never learn. And it's just like the last time. Hush, cheeky king! Our act is nearly done! 'Twas at the Gear Tower foretold that this fight 'twould be won...
Why do you need to say such a thing? Are you trying to show that you are calm? You think you are the Evil King who can replace Stan over there? Fortune smile on I and thee... That I am not him and he is not me. Mark my defeat and the Great Evil King candidate thou shalt see. Ah, the intention in thy eyes... Thou wishes to find it and beget its demise! 'Fore its great evil, the Great Evil King doth exercise! I tell you this thus so that I may learn what I need to know... My purpose is beyond vanity or show.
Strange man. I'm not happy with this, slave. It seems like we're being led.
He's not cool at all! Cool means being powerful and smashin' stuff! Not being floaty! That's not power! That's right, Bull! He's not cool! I'm the coolest one here! Good call!
Oh, Stan darling. Don't be jealous.
Music: Addashi Desert
Welcome to the Addashi Desert, the biggest overworld map in the game. From now until we reach the other end of the desert, we're in the worst part of the game. This whole place is one giant slog, and you'll soon see why.
But first, we run straight ahead into this dead end.
Something is there... Ari found "Tiny Gear"!
And now we head south from the entrance.
This little alcove contains our 27th Tiny Gear.
And just east of that, we come upon a gigantic stone face.
We investigate it, and it splits open to reveal a door.
Music: Deep Grave Pit
Welcome to the Deep Grave Pit, my personal least favorite dungeon. It's long, it's tedious, and it sucks. (The music is nice, though)
The sealed staircase is right next to the entrance, but we need to go deeper to find the Urns.
Floor B1 is one gigantic room intersected with waterways. There are no magic circles to be found, our only challenge here is to navigate the maze of bridges and find all four Urns.
The Milky Urns found in the Deep Grave Pit are the only Urns in the game with the potential to be dangerous. They hit for 50-70 damage with each attack, and take three or four rounds to go down.
This dungeon also has these masks who steal
We navigate through the floor and take out all four urns, then backtrack to the stairs.
Floor B2 is more of the same, but the Urns are closer to the middle of the room. We kill all four and proceed downwards.
On Floor B3, Big Bull is mysteriously replaced by Kisling. There's also a side room to the west containing a Treasured Dress. The Treasured Dress is armor for Linda which increases her defense by an incredible one point more than her default dress. Her default dress is worth 22,500 sukel though, so it's nice to be able to sell it.
As for why Kisling is here, I mentioned before that the Deep Grave Pit sets the record for urns. It's a fantastic place to grind your lower leveled party members up to match the rest of your team. All the urns respawn if you leave a dungeon, but the stairs remain open, so you don't lose any progress by leaving and you get an infinite supply of urns to grind (I didn't need to refight any urns to even my levels out, though).
We take out all four urns and proceed to B4.
Floor B4 brings magic circles into the mix. There are a load of them scattered around the room, and each one raises a bridges. Every time you hit a circle you raise the bridge to the next circle, and most (but not all) of the circles also raise a bridge to one of the four urns in the room.
I ran circles around this room activating circles for over ten minutes. Ten minutes spent on one room!
B5 is more like the previous rooms. No circles, just a maze of bridges. Once again, four Urns to open the stairs.
Floor B5 also has a room on each side. The east room contains a Guardian Crystal, which is an accessory that protects against all ailments (not Curses, though). The north room contains a Sparkling Rapier, which increases Rosalyn's attack by 20 and speed by 5. The west room contains an Ordinary Bottle, which...
...Contains the futility of commoners and seals the enemy's magic. This may be my favorite item description.
Hey, it's a good thing we got that rapier on B5, because Rosalyn is here for B6.
B6 is like B4. Magic circles and four urns.
Floor B7 is where you realize this dungeon is way too fucking long (actually, that was B4), and you just want to die.
You guessed it. Floor B8 has four urns, a waterway, and lots of bridges.
It also has a room to the north with this stone slab.
The game helpfully pans the camera upwards as well, just in case we don't know the meaning of the word "above."
Floor B9 is different!!!
It's just a single room with a single chest containing a single Old Stone Doll.
So the stone slab on floor B8 said to place the Old Stone Doll in the chest directly above it. To B7 then, right?
Nope. The slab was in a room to the north, and B7 has no such room. To find the room directly above that slab, we have to return to B5.
We stand in front of the chest and use the Old Stone Doll.
This opens the wall behind the chest.
There's another staircase behind the wall.
And the room on the other end contains the Gear Tower Key!
And now that we have the key, we leave the Deep Grave Pit, never to return.
In my descent into the pit, I was able to even out my party's levels. Along the way, some abilities were learned.
Ari learned Lightning Sword, a single target lightning attack, and Slumber, which puts enemies to sleep.
Rosalyn learned Shield, a defense buff to the entire team, and Blessing, which cures all curses
Kisling learned Mega Storm, a strong lightning spell to a single target, and Hyperdrive, which buffs the entire party's speed.
Big Bull learned Flash Punch, a single target lightning attack, and Flame, a fire attack to all enemies.
Linda learned Charmer, which buffs the critical hit rate for everyone, Deflector, which halves magical damage for everyone, Match, which sets everyone's speed to the same value, and Replenish, which restores the entire party's HP by 70 points.
And now that we're done with that, I leave you with this:
An almightyA milk drenched
Hmm, alright. Then...? bloated
regal
Show proper devotion!! And then...? Evil King Stan
So you think me, "An almighty regal Evil King Stan" eh?
Concept art of the Addashi Desert and Triste.