Part 34: Episode 33: Gimme Shelter
First things first, let's take a look at the results of the democratic process.
Necrosis won big, so it gets boosted to max level! In addition to faster casting and better range, the initial hit and the poison status does more damage now. The poison seems to last a bit longer, too.
Now that both Wind Spells are maxed out, we unlock a brand new MEGA SPELL! Each element has a third ludicrously over-powered spell that is unlocked only after fully upgrading the first two. These spells are fucking crazy. The Water one, for example, drains the health from surrounding enemies and gives it to Aya.
The third Wind spell, Apobiosis, hits all enemies in a big-ass radius for heavy damage AND knocks them flat on their asses with a healthy dose of Paralysis. It's essentially Plasma's bigger, meaner brother.
Posters who have played the game before voted largely for this, because everyone loves electric mayhem. Despite not actually being on the ballot, Apobiosis won second place, so we'll grab a level in that. You'll notice it is quite expensive, both in EXP and MP, but well worth it.
A quick glance at Wikipedia tells me that "Apobiosis" isn't an actual thing, so I'm forced to assume it is the medical term for "lightning in yo face".
Finally, Pyrokinesis and Energy Shot tied for third place. I went with Pyro purely because that was all I could afford (Pyro lvl 2 cost 1250, while ES lvl 2 cost 1750). Two fireballs for more damage. It doesn't sound great, but we'll come across some enemies later that have a distinct weakness to fire. So, we'll get some mileage out of it.
Anyway, here we are in
And we're greeted by an old friend.
oh fuck it's right there fuck
Meet the Ivory Stalker. Remember back in the caves under Dryfield, when we fought that invisible thing that was a total jerk? Yeah, well here's a stronger version.
Same deal is last time, he doesn't seem to have any new moves and prefers to just swipe at you with his scythe-like claw. The main problem is two fold: first off, the ceiling is much lower here, so the Stalker can easily hit you from where ever he feels like. Secondly, in addition to his new buckets of HP, the Stalker does loads of damage. A single hit from the Stalker takes off about twice as much HP as a hit from the Blizzard Chaser.
Normally, the Ivory Stalker is a huge fucking wall for me. It took three attempts to take him down on my test run, and even then it was a close fight. Luckily, I have voting goons on my side, so I can just unleash the Apobiosis kraken
The initial damage is nice, but the real reason to use Apobiosis is the paralysis. Now that is a godsend, crippling the Stalker and leaving him completely immobile and defenseless while Aya carves her name into his dumb face.
Despite our new spell, the fight is still stressful enough to aggravate Aya's drinking problem.
Although the process eats up all our MP, the Stun-n'-Slash Stratagem works flawlessly. Aya is clearly a modern day Sun Tsu.
Get out of here, Stalker.
Normally, such a piddly reward from such an annoyingly difficult fight is insulting. Be seeing as I basically cheated my ass off, I'll take it.
And we finally get the strongest type of 9mm ammo, the Spartan! It's the rarest and it hits the hardest, but otherwise it's nothing flashy.
That fight, by the way, is pretty much the sole reason they make you do that Power Grid puzzle in the mines twice. After the Blizzard Chaser boss, another immediate resource draining fight is a pretty low blow, so they toss in a quick little puzzle that forces you to walk right back into the save room.
Plus, they used up their company-wide allotment on back-to-back boss fights with Xenogears.
Yup, this sure is an evil secret lab. Going by Survival Horror rules, we must be coming up on the end of the game!
Well, we're not quite inside yet. Gotta take the massive elevator down into crazytown.
Shelter Tunes
We now arrive on the set of James Cameron's ALIENS, so let's poke around and see what we can swipe.
Nope.
Good to know evil secret labs have lobbies.
Another elevator, but this one's a no go.
Oh, I guess this actually is a lobby. That's odd.
Well, time to take the only unlocked door in the joint. I wonder how many world-ending schemes would've succeeded if the baddies only locked the door behind them...
In this corridor that apparently came out of a submarine, we find someone has given a rat's ass.
Aya does what everyone does after meeting Rattigan Johansen, and kills every rat she sees indiscriminately.
The rats aren't the important thing here, though. The important thing are the Anti-NMC auto-turrets located on the wall. In addition to firing on the creatures, the turrets will also turn their laser sights on Aya because...
...well, because it's a video game. After locking on with their beams for a few seconds, this type of turret fires a low damage blast of electricity. Easy to dodge, and no biggie if they hit.
The most annoying things about the Defense Turrets, and yes there will be other kinds, is that they are not technically NMCs. We only get BP for killing NMCs, so all we get for killing these things is tiny sums of Experience. Also, since they aren't organic, the pseudo-medical jargon of our spells doesn't apply, rendering them immune to our Mitochondria Lightning.
On the upside, bullets work juuuust fine.
Some doors in the Shelter are helpfully labeled.
oh gross
and Strangers, too. Y'know, you'd think since we're on Disc 2 and had to fight not one but TWO bosses to get in here, that the Shelter would hold greater challenges for us. But nope! Smooth sailing for a while longer yet.
After eliminating the enemies we already faced in the first level of the game, we discover there's another infinite box of basic 9mm bullets down here. Hmm, wonder why they keep their ammunition in the pantry?
Naturally, each of these shelves have their own flavor text!
: A storage place for foodstuff. Lots of processed food in cans.
: There are empty petri dishes inside.
: Clothes in a large wooden box. There are sizes from child to adult, it seems... They're all the same color. They must be shelter supplies.Y'know, for all the unlockables in this game, I've always been disappointed there were no alternate costumes. Maybe it's just because of the huge swaths of my childhood wasted playing Resident Evil games, but I always enjoyed dressing characters up in silly costumes while I fought unnatural abominations. Running around RE3 was Disco Dana Scully was always great fun! But Parasite Eve 2 doesn't even let me put Aya back in her sweet leather jacket from the first game.
I agree completely, Aya.
: This used to be medical storage. What are all these reagent bottles? I'm not really psyched to try them and find out.
Aya's unwilling to take random pills, but totally down for drinking an IV bag like a Capri Sun. Maybe she's just that thirsty.
: The stench! Something in there is pretty far gone...
: A row of reagents... The labels are all Greek to me.
: There's a carrying case for drink cans and bottles.No free Coca-cola for us here. I know, I'm surprised, too!
There's another door in the back of the room, but it's locked, so let's take this one.
Well, this hallway certainly is empty.
KILLER AMOEBAS! AGAIN!
These Blue Blobs are actually kind of a pain in the ass. Being made of soft jelly, bullets pass harmlessly through them, rendering them immune to normal attacks. Magic hurts them just fine, but if they touch you, they inflict Silence. So, what's the easiest way to deal with them?
BAYONET THE FUCKERS
No, I don't know why a knife hurts an amoeba while a bullet does not. But it does, and I'll take any excuse to use my bayonet.
The only attack they have is actually a two part attack. First, they siphon off some of your MP, then after draining enough, they fire off a weak fireball at you. Losing MP is extremely irritating, so they get knives to the face. Err, once I find the face, at least.
There's a couple more turrets in here, and these ones are notable only because I noticed they are closer to the ground than most. Which means...
Knifin' turrets
Well, that's done.
Man, this sure would be an anticlimatic place to end an update, wouldn't it?
NEXT TIME
Aya discovers goons.