Part 60: Whale Whale, Look Who's Back!
UPDATE 60: Whale Whale, Look Who's Back!
Pictured, me in the Texas summer. Not much has changed in the Orange Oasis. If you go to the Dino Dig you can find out that exp gains have been doubled so it's easy to level up. That's great! Too bad I'm at max level! Really, we're here to see an alternative route to the one we saw the first time we came here.
Rain Town! Remember this place? We were named the savior because only we could turn a knob to the right slightly. We also saw what happens when it turns to the left...
This, mostly. If you're on a normal run, then that's the end of Rain Town. However, if you're on a Hikikomori run...
You can go back to Rain Town.
Rain Town is now inhabited not by Veggie Kids but Lilli creatures. There's nothing else going on here, but I still wanted to show it off. It's pretty neat considering how much of a throwaway this place is to begin with.
Now then, as I'm sure you guess by the whale pun in the title, Humphrey's back. Tell a friend. Let's see if he's less... hungry.
But... but... our million clams. Do you know how hard Hero worked for that? Ugh, FINE. Take it you damn whale.
HUMPHREY: Now that is what I call gourmet! Ah... There you go! Now that I'm all filled up, everything should be back to normal in here... Well... almost... Nyak, nyak...
Walking into the belly of the beast didn't work the first time, but I've got a good feeling it'll work this time!
Humphrey is truly back to normal, on the first floor anyway. If you missed anything like a hangman key or a chest then you can return to where it was originally and pick it up. But we don't need any of that, so we can skip that and head straight for the new content.
...What?
PERFECTHEART: I'm teaching Sweetheart how to do household chores! She's learning... at her own pace... but she makes for such a cute maid, don't you think? Hoho!
I'm gonna go with NO.
Hmph!The Sweetheart maid was something I'm sure someone wanted and was happy to get. Not me though!
Yeah... she's not kidding. We don't want to do this
Why hello there, dolls~ I am surprised to see that everyone is still alive. How exciting! I must ask you for a favor, since I'm a little immobilized at the moment. There's a creature that roams around here called the Snot Bubble. If you could kindly collect some snot from them, I would be able to create a concoction to revitalize my body. That shouldn't be too much trouble... should it, dolls?Huh... well at least one of the girls are still alive somehow. I'm not sure how Humphrey ate only the witches' bodies when he opened his mouth and swallowed them nearly whole. But hey, I did say I want more time with the characters.
Eh, whatever. At least Sweetheart is getting her just desserts... Kikiki~...
It was just a spur of the moment kinda thing. Anyway, I need to find myself some good quality meat. Some rat meat would be perfect! Maybe you can find some by hunting down some of those lab rats runnin' around... You can do that, can't you?Not sure how I feel about the witches coming back to life only to give us some fetch quests, but so be it... also "Good quality rat meat" is not a phrase anyone should ever use.
Henno! If we poke Mutantheart, she pokes us back, and if we pet her...
Would you bother to help me with something? I want to build a new body for myself, but as you can see... I am a bit incapacitated. I will require some scrap metal from the worm-bots slithering around my lab. Thank you darlings~.All three of the witches managed to survive being eaten... somehow. I guess I shouldn't question the logic of a dream world. Anyway, collecting the material isn't that difficult. Hunting down and finding any of the enemies and beating them will get the material you need for whichever witch needs it. You've already seen the enemies, and I'm sure you know what a fetch quest is, so let's skip this.
Here, take this for your efforts.
Why don't you try drinking it, doll? The effects should prove... entertaining... kukuku~
The mystery potion is a... very special item. And it's an appropriate time to talk about some of the planned features for this game. Originally, it was intended that Omori's gender could be chosen at the start. So you could play as a boy or a girl. This may have also flipped some of the other cast's genders. This was cancelled very early in development, and so we only have beta sprites and concept art to go off. Well, most of the sprites are beta... one of them is in the finished product.
Say hi to Omari! The last vestige of the genderbent Omori plan. I tried to look up more information on this, but you'd be surprised (or not) at how much fanart you have to dig through to find actual content when you google that
Anyway, Omari will stay around so long as we don't enter a battle or go above the water. So let's keep her around while we finish up in Humphrey.
With this, I'll finally be able to get my body back! Kikiki~
Huh? What are you guys looking at? Oh, right. When people do you favors you're supposed to give something back, right? Okay then, hmm... yeah, here. Take this. Kikiki~Marina gives us... a severed finger. Fantastic. It raises attack by 10, lowers defense by 5, and makes the wearer angry. It'd be garbage even if we didn't just get the best gear in the game.
Hmmmmmmmmm~ Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm~ Bah! This metal body is much too clunky... I think I'd much prefer staying as just a head! But still... I should repay you for your efforts... Ah, I know ~ go on and take these!
This should go nicely with the mystery potion we got from Medusa!
The high heels give attack up by 10 and speed down by 10. They also have the description that Kel would probably like them since they make you taller. I'm not sure he'd enjoy the lack of mobility that comes along with it...
Since I don't have a body, I won't be needing them anymore! Besides, having no body is so convenient! I wish I'd thought of this sooner!Believe it or not, that's the end of the new story content in Humphrey. Don't worry, there's still more to do, but it's all combat from here on out. Well, until we get to REDACTED.
Heading back to Molly's area, a new location has opened up. On the left side, there used to be a Humphrey blocking the entrance and it told us to come back tomorrow. Well, you can't come back tomorrow on the Sunny path. Thankfully, we have all the time in the world on this route! Let's head on over.
Hmm... I wonder what this area is going to be about...
BOSS: Using the latest innovations in technology, I have devised an ultimate challenge for only the coolest challengers. Down here, you'll be able to experience simulations for fights that you have fought before... but stronger!
The rest of this update is tackling the Boss Rush Challenge. As Boss says, this isn't a rematch with the original enemies - these fights are going to be scaled up to late game levels. I would say to not attempt these fights below level 40 if you want to make it all the way through. There aren't any checkpoints, so be prepared for the long haul!
Let's get to it...
Tussle Among Trees
It's been a very long time, but welcome back to the field Ye Olde Sprout. These fights start pretty easy but will ramp up in difficulty somewhat quickly.
This guy's still only got one move, and while it's not a lot of damage, keep in mind I'm at max level with the best gear equipped. Being unprepared for this could get your ass handed to you if you're not careful. The best thing to do is go into this battle with a varied moveset on every party member, with a lot of emotion items. I'd also say to make sure you can change an enemy/partymember emotion with an ability of your own just to be safe. Not for Sprout guy here, but because we're literally fighting every single boss in the game. There's gonna be a couple gimmicks in there you need to be careful of.
An angry Aubrey beating up a sad old man quickly works in our favor though.
CHAOS ASSEMBLY
The return of the dreaded download window. His gameplan is exactly the same as before... granted I have actual useful skills this time instead of guard, so we're going to be vulnerable on that third turn. So let's make sure he dies before then.
Everyone's angry, and his defense has been dropped to 0. Time to go all out over the next two turns.
Aubrey's beat down did 1000. Omori is kinda OP in the late game.
You Were Wrong, GO BACK
The first of the two storyline emotion bosses. Not difficult, but you have to play by their strategy. This is why I recommend bringing the ability to change emotions at will, on top of emotion items.
Since he's going to get angry eventually, I'd rather he hurry up and do so. It makes it easier to plan around than waiting for him to change his emotion after I do enough damage.
Have I mentioned that I don't like happy? Because I don't... even if I did get a crit, the miss frustrates me more than the dopamine the crit gives.
Hero absolutely needs to have refresh equipped on him. I've got the chef's hat on him too so he can just constantly throw out refreshes. If you have enough money you can just spam out items like it's no big thing, but y'know, what if I need it on the next boss
...Have I mentioned how much I love happy? Because I do!
Sweet Paralysis
The first of the regal bugs, King Crawler wasn't too bad originally and isn't bad here. The biggest worry is that the Sprout Moles he drops now don't die as easily, so it can take a couple party members targeting it for it to go down. It's important to kill it and prevent the bug from healing itself.
The damage the bosses are doing is starting to go up now... an all party attack with us having the emotion advantage is still doing double what Ye Old Sprout was doing. We've still got a handful of bosses to go, too.
Still not difficult thanks to an enraged Aubrey who easily takes it down with a pair of 1K hits.
Heh, this shouldn't be to-
...Oh no...
Valour Against All Odds
When I saw all three of them I was utterly terrified because I knew exactly what was going to happen. I was going to end up killing all of them at the same time and their final deathblow would be buffed enough and I'd get destroyed. Because of this, I played this fight incredibly conservatively. Terrified of doing too much damage to one of the sprout moles and then getting annihilated for my trouble.
This was an actual strategic use of sad. I was planning to take out the first mole, and made the third one sad so that he'd take longer to die.
Only Omori got crit here, the rest were base damage. Yeah, I was REALLY worried about that final attack at this point. I also decided to switch targets to the 2nd maximus upon realizing how much damage he does compared to the other two - who deal about the same damage but don't do all party attacks.
I also got unlucky and they all ended up making themselves sad anyway, so much for that strategy
Here's me being incredibly shameful and using items to get back up to full health and juice. It's disgusting and basically invalidates the whole LP.
And then it turns out the ultimate attack is capped at 100 per person, less since Aubrey and Kel have the emotion advantage. It's like the game set up the troll, then didn't use it. The true troll move.
Despite me literally trying to prevent this exact circumstance, I kill the third one right after the first one... only to reveal he's capped at 75 damage for his ultimate attack! This entire fight is basically a troll, and somehow makes me hate Sweetheart's castle even more.
And then the mole I was most worried about is the weakest of them all. Truly I now understand the power of being third.
Alright, literally any boss has to be better than that.
Hooray! We're about a third of the way through! Still... quite a bit more to go.
Flouring With You
...Oh No... I thought, I'm literally about to lose all my partymembers and then go into the next fight at 1 HP. I was sure to be doomed....
...Except, this is all he does. Turns out, he's a breather boss. You win after three rounds no matter what and can use this time to heal without worries. Good thing I didn't instead queue up all my powerful juice using attacks.
*speaking louder* It's a good thing I didn't queue up my highest juice using abilities.
World's End Valentine
Ah, the second of the emotion bosses. Glad to see Sweetheart can take some time out of her busy day being Sweepheart
Prepare to see this screen a lot more as the fights go on. The defense boost from Artist Gator is just too useful to pass up when we're getting this far in. We've still got some very tough bosses ahead of us.
Now that Sweetheart is locked into happy, we can start prepping for how to counter her. Unlike with Space Ex-Boyfriend, Sweetheart has her all party anger cast that we have to be very wary of. We need to drop a raincloud as soon as it happens and take advantage of the party advantage. Or at the very least, change to happy ourselves.
Red hands are just so good... except for the juice cost. That 75 per cast is really heavy on the juice. Omori can only do 4 red hands from full juice; thankfully Hero is on refresh duty on every turn to make sure Omori can just constantly cast them.
Aubrey is really held back when she can't be angry. Omori can deal heavy damage no matter which emotion he is, but man Aubrey really needs to be angry to be useful. Sure, she's still doing 1K a turn, but Omori did about 2K while sad.
Jawbreaker
Jawsum's return is a little bit tougher than his original showing. Since his minions have more health too, this fight is more tedious than tough honestly.
Unlike before, attacking Jawsum doesn't deal double damage to each of his minions. Instead, they each take half of the total damage dealt. Combined with the extra health they have goes to making this fight last longer. As cool as the music is, this fight was always kinda meh for me.
Now that Aubrey is allowed to be her angry self, we are able to quickly dispatch the minions and start dealing damage directly to Jawsum. He goes down shortly thereafter.
GOLDENVENGEANCE
Pluto expanded is... about the same as before. I was still worried and did some major debuffs on him, but he doesn't quite live up to the intimidating physique he carries.
Pluto's crit deals... about a third of Omori's health. Yeah, sorry, that ain't scary.
I didn't get a chance to do this when I faced Pluto the first time, so let's remedy that!
Omori just did 2K of damage... and Aubrey is really flexing her strength with about 3K of damage. I think she heard me before
Pluto still raises his attack and defense up a round when he drops below half. I'm more worried about the defense than the attack, that's going to make Pluto take even longer to deal with.
I hadn't seen that before, but apparently Pluto can flex some more. I'm okay with that since it just wasted his turn.
Woo-hoo! We've just got two more bosses to go! We're almost done...! Too bad the bosses are...
These gals...
Underwater Prom Queens
On our first duel with the Slime Girls, I actually got really lucky thanks to some crits by a very angry Aubrey. The Slime Girls actually have some very nasty tricks up their sleeves that get exposed when you're in a battle of attrition with them.
Aubrey is going to be a big part of our strategy again here. Omori and Aubrey should be dealing some big damages per round when they get up and going.
This always fires after the Girls drop below half health. I did get a bit lucky here and have a heal from Hero queued up and ready to go... plus almost everyone is at near full health and juice besides Aubrey.
What makes me really lucky is that this was their attack - some of their other attacks, if aimed at Aubrey, could have been worrisome. This is the first fight to actually feel a bit tense at max level, besides the three knights.
Hey remember when I said there was some nasty things that I got lucky and Aubrey skipped? Yeah, this is what I was referring to. I didn't actually know they had this until I had to refight the original Slime Girls and didn't get that lucky Aubrey crit. This shit is incredibly brutal especially since there is no healing between fights and well... y'know, boss rush.
Their stat drop at the end of that caused them to get a turn in after Kel and they toasted Hero. Yeah, this isn't great!!
Whale Whale Whale
Humphrey was a bit of a PITA, even if he wasn't really hard, the fight goes on for an eternity and a bad move or unlucky crit could put you on the backfoot. So here comes another 10 minute fight when you're already at your lowest point and spent the past 40 minutes in boss fights! Good luck!
A regular attack from Humphrey can do just under half of Hero and Aubrey's health and just over half of Kel's health. A crit could oneshot Omori right now! Which is why it's very important to come into this fight at with a decent reserve of health and juice.
It's probably getting a little tiresome to see the same strategy but it works very very well in the late game, just as did for a majority of the game. The fact that this strat doesn't work on Space Ex-Husband is why I really liked that fight.
And we're really going to need this in about, oh 5 minutes.
Hell, you can already see its use now. Emotion advantage and defense up on Aubrey has Humphrey doing about half his normal damage output.
Kel has kinda become more of a situational character in the late game, but his run and gun can still be very useful at this point. Stacking it with coffee would help it even more!
Just to illustrate how long this fight can take, it took me 5 minutes to just get to his second phase. Humphrey's got a ridiculous amount of health.
Humphrey Grande gets a bit more of his strength back, but since he only attacks one person at a time... it's not that big of a deal.
Swallow Hollow
We're in the final stretch now! Humphrey will be doing 100 or so damage to the entire party at the end of his turn. So long as we heal every single turn we should be fine. It should be noted this is with Humphrey's attack being reduced, emotion advantage, and our defenses boosted on top of being max level. Yeah, if you're not at least level 40 I don't know how you make it past this point.
Thanks to our party gaining at least 4 energy a turn, Omori is basically going to switch between red hands and releasing energy to speed this fight along.
It's not as worthwhile as a red hands, but considering Hero needs to spend his turns healing instead of topping up our juice, we're down to using items which... I'd like to pretend don't exist, okay??
Humphrey eventually runs out of juice and Omori does nearly 4K in damage from a red hands. What better way to send off this boss rush.
I was worried there was going to be some of the Hikikomori bosses show up here, but it's just the main storyline bosses that appear in buffed form. Which is good, because I surely don't want to fight buffed versions of the something fights.
It's a little uh, phalic. But that's it! There's not much left to do in Humphrey... but we're definitely going to need a break before we do it because... well, you'll see...