Part 13: Episode XIII: Running in Circles
Episode XIII: Running in Circles
When last we left our heroes, Samanosuke had fallen into some sort of portal trap thingamabob set by Tokichiro. Meanwhile, Kaede got taken out in one punch by an evil Samanosuke clone. With that said, let's continue...
In a puzzling move of mercy, the demon agents saw it fit to just leave Kaede crumpled on the floor instead of...I don't know...killing her like they had the other dozens of people in the castle... Oh well, I guess the plot has to advance somehow.
Unfortunately, this section will do almost nothing whatsoever to advance it.
That's right, folks. It's time for the mandatory Capcom survival horror tradition...
The Sub-Character Section! Since Samanosuke has been Vigodaed and is possibly dead or something (likelihood of actually being dead is around .02% repeating), it's time for Kaede to run around, with no real purpose, for a stretch.
Kaede's fighting style is quite a bit different from Samanosuke, so let's go over that. Being a ninja, she's all kinds of agile. As such, her dodge maneuvers are actually...ya know...worth a damn occasionally.
Especially, her back dodge. Which is a ninja backflip that takes her well out of range of any enemy attacks. Handy in a pinch.
Unfortunately, as far as straight combat goes, Kaede's speed is the only thing she has going for her. Her default knife is by far the weakest weapon in the entire game. Samanosuke's default sword is over twice as strong as it, for any comparison. It takes two entire five hit combos and sometimes an extra strike or two to kill just a single zombie.
Though, to her credit, if an enemy is knocked to the ground, she can stab them in the dick with the best of 'em.
In addition, instead of magic, Kaede is equipped with kunai (read: throwing knives) which she can use to strike distant enemies. Actually, forget what I said about her default knife. This is the most useless weapon in the game. It hits for perhaps less damage than a single knife strike and she could be starting on the second combo by the time she gets around to tossing another one of the things.
If you're into slightly poking enemies to death over the course of a half minute, I suppose it's a blast. Otherwise, just forget the triangle button exists until Samanosuke returns.
That's all the bad (which is to say most of it). Now, let's get with the plus side of our ever inept ninja girl. She can, in fact, jump. A good eight or nine feet in the air, in fact. By double tapping toward an enemy and hitting attack, Kaede will show off her seldom used acrobatic abilities. While taking a shit on the laws of gravity is fairly impressive, this maneuver has a much greater use.
Namely, by following up by pressing attack as soon as she lands, Kaede will slit the monster she just jumped over's throat. This kills 100% of the enemies she encounters (which just all happen to be small end humanoid jerks...so it all works out well).
In addition, during both the flipping and throat slitting animations, she is completely invulnerable. Making it one of the best attacks in the entire game, as far as low level baddies are concerned.
Too bad there is absolutely no need to fight any of the enemies Kaede encounters. Ever. You may notice she is lacking the Shrek Gauntlet. So yep... She cannot collect souls. Making any and all demon slaying completely worthless. In addition, she (magically) shares her healing items with Samanosuke's stock. So, any herbs or medicines used now will take away from Sam.
In short: the best strategy in this section is to just run right past any and everything or else you're actually likely be punished for getting into fights. I don't know about you all, but I'm looking forward to this fun.
Kaede heads out of the room. She immediately encounters a dying soldier.
"Did you miss the fucking demon siege that killed everyone? I'm sure it was easy to overlook. What with all the blood, corpses, and screams... The hell do you think happened?!"
Nevermind there are monsters in literally every inch of the castle and surrounding estate...it was definitely the work of those pesky monsters in the as of yet unexplored area.
The soldier immediately drops dead after giving his final message. He just happens to be carrying the key that unlocks the path that direction, as well.
Nevermind, Kaede could clearly just jump over the damn gate...she's definitely going to need that key. Or hell, really anyone could could mount that thing, with a slight bit of effort. But, we all know survival horror protagonists have some sort of unspoken distain with lifting their hands above their heads. So, the key it is...
I'll just skip ahead here, as the path to the next area is largely linear and full of easily
Secondly: there is a well. There is no reason to climb down this well. Nor is there really a reason for a well to have a ladder leading into it, in the first place. But, down we go...
At the bottom we find...
This creepy little bastard leering at Kaede's tits. Glad we took the time to investigate.
After a bit more travel, we finally arrive at this little destination. You'll notice a building to the north and a path to the west. You see this here? We're going to be traveling through this little stretch a lot.
Let's check out the northern building, first.
Another heavy duty magic lock is in place at the entrance of the hall. We'll keep it in mind, for now. When the game is actually somewhat fun again...
The rest of the building is largely empty, save two key areas.
First, some sort of Fire Dungeon style super blast furnace, complete with ten foot streaks of flame erupting from the raging fires.
This, of course, invites a timed door run across the three blast furnaces. This took me three tries, simply because the three furnaces erupt at random intervals and it's impossible to see which has just gone off, from the camera angle of the activation lever. You're given ten seconds or so to make it across, so it's largely possibly to fuck yourself, and have to try again, as soon as you pull the switch.
The third time I ran across without having to stop once... Go figure.
At the end of the room, we find a 'Gold Plate". I think bets are 20:1 that there will also be a "Silver Plate" lurking around here, as well.
Kaede heads back to the central hallway and heads through the door at the end of the corridor.
I'm not sure why you'd stick a records office across the hall from a blast furnace...but what do I know about interior design? There's several items of note in here. First off:
A clockwork device that is missing a gear. How is this always happening in these games? Are gears regularly misplaced in clockwork devices? Is it like losing your keys? Does a clock tower keeper go around patting down his laundry and looking beneath the couch cushions for a rogue set of cogs, on some mornings?!
Bah... Here's a couple of files, to add insult to injury.
Journal #5
The gatekeeper is probably pissed you can't tell the difference between the gods' and demons' realms. Fire, brimstone, and fleshy gunk vs. white, light, and hippies. Come on, it's not that hard.
"Instead, I'm going to expelled the rest of my energy whining about it and doodling a crude picture on some parchment. That'll show 'em!"Suzaku
We're almost done with yet another code book. If you wish for it really hard, we might even use one, soon!
Kaede backtracks a good four rooms worth of ground and heads down the unexplored western path.
Hey, what do you know? A Code Box. It's time to actually solve one of these things.
'Which is?' This implies there is a multiple choice response, which is clearly not the case, good sir.
The answer to this 'riddle' is found in the Byakko. Which is still missing a volume, but I think we can get by without the whole thing.
Well, they're 'inaugurating discussions' and 'Chasm of Dimensions' sounds like a location. So, the symbols for that are err... Chasm (A with an line through the bottom, pitchfork, incomplete crosshair) of (square crosshair) Dimensions (fat A, squiggly dealie, squashed crosshair).
Booya! What do we get for our crack detective skills?
An item Kaede can't even fucking use... Wonderful...
Heading out from the save room, we discover the vile gear thief has come to a fitting end.
At the end of the area, the gate leading out of this half of the section presents itself.
And sure enough, it needs both a silver and a gold plate. Sigh... Backtracking it is...
All the way back the way we just came...
I guess you can imagine what that gear does.
Why, it opens a secret back room up, of course. What were you thinking? It would ring a bell? Why would we bother ourselves with that? That's just silly.
The back room holds our wayward silver plate. In addition, there is a final file. Were you expecting any less?
Byakko
The grand tale of the Byakko comes to a close...about ten minutes too late. But, at least the gripping narrative of demons coming to power and ogres sitting around in infinite darkness talking about it will be known to all.
One more backtrack all the way across the area.
And so the path is finally open. What lies ahead? Will it being any more interesting than backtracking across the same area four times? God, I hope so...
Tune in Next Time For:
Flaming Weapons!
Terrible Voice Work!!
Stealth Camouflage!!!
Bonus Content:
Kaede's Brief Moment of Compotence: Slitting the throats of monsters that don't have throats