Part 10: Episode 10: Life Finds a Way

Quick update today, since tomorrow is April 19, aka the day Mortal Kombat comes out, aka the day I accomplish nothing but punching cyborgs in the dick. In honor of this sacred, national holiday, I ask that you listen to this on a loop for the next 72 hours.


Episode 10 - Life Finds a Way


Last time, we discovered that Daniel's son was in danger. Also, like a few dozen other people, but Daniel's son! We gotta save him! It's up to us!



: Daniel, stop.


Daniel status: Still rules.







I'm not sure how Daniel managed to put out that fire, since Dr. Klamp told us it's caused by his mitochondria, and thus burning from within his very cells. But Daniel's just that goddamn tough.

: I don't care if I burn...

: I'll go...

: Ben's my son. He's the only family I've got. Dammit, I can't do anything.

: Leave it to me.

: Well... but... but...!

: I'll get them out safe, I promise.





: I know...

: Aya! Ben's...

: Don't worry. I'll find him. I won't come back until I do.


And so, we enter Central Park, the second "dungeon" of the game.


Moving along this twisting path, we notice the park seems completely deserted.


Wait, nevermind.


Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes!


This seems as good a time as any to talk about the difference between rifles and handguns. Rifles have better range, higher damage, and usually a much larger ammo capacity. But it takes Aya a moment to shoulder it before every shot, so it's noticeably slower than a handgun.

It also doesn't look as cool.


There's ammo in this chest, by the way.


Moving on, Aya wonder where the hell those deadly snakes came from. King Cobras are not a common sight in New York.


Where could they have come from? Did they take a plane out to New York, and Aya just happened to catch them on their vacation?



: Oh, balls.


Welcome to the Central Park Zoo!


Like all zoos, visitors are welcome to take a complimentary firearm upon entering.


Fuckin' birds.


Let's check out that door first.


Well, this looks promising already.




There's a kevlar vest in the cabinet for some reason.


And this drawer contains this fucking key. On your first time through, it's really easy to miss this key. Even if you're poking around the drawers, the hotspot to actually interact with this one is finicky and likes to ignore your button presses. And, yes, you will need this key.


Moving right along, we find...


...a monkey playing Jai alai?


Oh God! It's a flesh boomerang!


Let's just move on and never speak of that again.




Oh, that looks bad.


Yup, that's bad.


Let's read placards! By the way, the correct term is "venomous". "Poisonous" refers to poisons you ingests.






Yeah, yeah, that's all very interesting, but I see some treasure chests!


Just loop around the outside of the room to reach them.


This is a new item of questionable use. Yeah, the snakes can inflict Poison status on us, and it does tick away at our health pretty quickly, but the snakes are really easy to dodge and status effects go away at the end of battle anyway.

The other two chests had a Medicine 2 and a Defense +1


Back outside, we continue to the right to find this nice little walkway.


Also, these guys.


Oh, hey, now that Cure-P is even less useful!


The killer pigeons always drop Junk. At first glance, Junk is completely useless garbage that only serves to fill up your already over-burdened inventory. Actually, they have use, and collecting them can get you a nice little reward.

In a New Game+, at least. Right now, yeah, they're useless garbage.


While I'm explaining shit, let's talk about Bonus Points. You receive Bonus Points, or BP, every time you level up. How much you receive depends on how often you got hit. Get slapped around a lot by an electric crocodile? Get less BP. Dodge all that shit like a pro? More BP. Simple.


You can also spend your BP to upgrade various stats. As you can see, you can boost ActiveTime or Item Capacity, as well as add +1 to every stat on your weapon or armor. It costs 100 BP a pop to do this, though, so I opted to just upgrade my Item Capacity.


Like so.


Another crate full o' bullets in a public place. No biggie.


I also found more ammo and a Tool on a looping path back to the entrance, but let's just move on.


That gate is the exit. You need that damn Zoo Key from earlier to open it. Honestly, backtracking isn't as bad in this game as it is in most Survival Horror games, because chances are you'll level up from the extra fighting. But fuck that Zoo Key, man.


Did...did you just notice that? Really?


Whatever, let's just get out of here before a mutant elephant or some shit shows up.



: Hotchacha! It's yer ol' pal, Rattigan Johansen here! Let's take a trip to da zoo today, kiddies!


: Dese little boidies don't got much goin' for 'em, ta be honest. Sure, dere quick, but dey can't take much damage, an' dey can't really dish it out neither. Still, dey got junk in dere trunk! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!


: Ol' King Cobra over 'ere ain't too much different den most video game snakes. But dere is two distinct types. Dere's da Red ones, dey move slower but dey can poison ya. Da Yellow ones are smaller an' faster, but dey can't poison ya. I uh...I ain't got no snake jokes. Dey eat rats, y'know!


: Ain't no monkeyin' around wit dis guy! He can throw his whole crazy hand atcha like a boomerang! Keep yer distance, cuz if ya get too close, he'll go ape on youse! Help me, Dr. Zaius! Dere's a boomer-ape try ta get me!