Part 11: PART ELEVEN: TECTONICS AND PSIONICS

It's morning.


PART ELEVEN: TECTONICS AND PSIONICS



Welcome back to the Plate Center. Certainly finding Rune and stopping Zio are important, but they're on conditional time; no time'll pass until I say so!

Besides, earthquakes aren't exactly fun in the sun, either.



: Thank god Hahn isn't here. Stupid lines.



: Grarahgfrizzlbagh!

Yup, more robots.



Which means that Demi can just poke them and kill them instantly. I love machine combat.



Anyway, we immediately deviate from the glowing line and head right. Also, I did some reorganizing. While Demi isn't all THAT strong, she'll still self-revive, and will heal herself by walking, so there's no reason not to put her up front to take most of the hits.



And on the off-chance that I can't wait until after a fight ends to bring her back to life, this'll revive her mid-battle. I believe it might heal her HP as well, but I can't honestly say; I've never run out of Recovers.



Back to the line!



There's nothing else on this floor, so just follow until you hit the elevator.



What a lovely pink motif. And by lovely I mean that's gotta be nauseating to work in.



Though, I suppose the monstrous mechanized employees really don't care. I guess this is just the manual labor model; this design is reused much later as an attack model.



Nevertheless, little Demi has the touch of death.



Oh, jesus, this looks annoying. Humorously, in the official US guide for this game this map is actually partially cut off. Also they list a treasure box as a stairway. It's supposedly a guide written by Sega Visions staffers, but apparently they knew even less about the game than I did, and that's saying something. There are so many freaking things wrong in that book.



Well, uh, that takes care of that fork?



I start to the left.



And inadvertantly find the elevator down. Oh, good. Now I get to go back and find everything.



Bottom half of the left side is completely worthless.



Some more worker bots try to stop me from stealing nothing, apparently.



Okay, to the right then!



Ah, gear. Head protection for robots.



Holy crap, what do any of these stupid robots even DO down here?



To the north is Ceramic Armor. For a second I thought "Aw, come on, more?" but then realized that everyone else is wearing Mail, not Armor. So, this is also for little Demi.



Heading back to the elevator, I demonstrate how Recover is like robo-Trimate.



Welcome to the next floor. I guess this would be B2?



Heading left first, again.



There's lots of little paths here that go nowhere. Just go south.



Past this turn off,



And take this elevator down.



A-yup. There's only one way to go here.



Hopefully it's worth it.



: There're some weird machines here.

: Weird! Don't be so rude. These are spare parts for androids.

: Spare parts?

: Yes, they look like internal weapon units. Let's see...they seem to be in working order. And they look like they will fit. I will install them right away. Will you close your eyes and turn your back?

: Huh? Why?

: Just do it, Chaz!

: oh...



Fade to black. A thousand creepy fanfics are written. And potentially one amusing one.



: Now I'm powered up!

: I don't see that anything has changed.

: It looks that way doesn't it? Well, soon you shall see.

: Huh? Why is everyone so cryptic all the time?

: It's the new weapon 'Phononmezer!' I can't wait to try it out!



And try it out we shall! Phononmezer adds a new skill to Demi's ability list. More importantly, it lets us create a new combination attack with Chaz's Airslash.



I honestly couldn't tell you the properties of the this attack at the moment. It just hits everything really hard.



Now, back up a floor and right on that path I skipped. Skip the south part, too. It just loops.



: Oh, look, the line again.

: Good times.

We'll skip the northern path and follow the line.



Along the way, Rika learns this lovely little skill that lets her hit every enemy. Splendiferous!



Another elevator!



This is the mirror of the path with the phononmezer in it, only this one actually connects to the meat of this floor.



The Loaders aren't fans of Gryz. Also, goddamn this game has some nice spriting.



Oh, uh, sorry Gryz. I could use a Moon Dew on him, but, uh, you know, he'll be fine.



What you don't see right now is that Gryz no longer animates while walking. I guess the party just pushes floating corpses around when someone dies. Anyway, I see treasure!



While undoubtedly awesome to have in the kitchen, I'm sure as hell am not taking off Chaz's laser sword for him to use this.



I am willing to lose the Struggle Axe's rare freezing effect to have a goddamn laser axe, though.



I'm sure he won't mind waking up with this in is hands.



Why the hell are all these shields lying around, anyway? Maybe the enemy should bother using them; I might not kill them so quickly then.



Going down!



This place just keeps going. And is pink. What the hell.



Before moving on, we grab this weapon opposite of the elevator.



: I just love the smell of fresh weaponry!



At the north end of this floor is the main terminal.





: Now there won't be any more earthquakes! Hooray!

: Yes, we'll be all right for the time being.

: Unless of course the plates shift wildly out of control due to being free for the first time in thousands of years.

: Why do you do these things to me?

: But this doesn't solve the problem, you know. The abnormalities will not end unless we shut down Nurvus - and maybe even Zelan!

: Yes, you're right... And, in order to do so...first, we must get to Zio!

: Right! Somehow I keep forgetting what we're supposed to be doing every few minutes!



Anyway, time to drag our Motavian friend back to Monsen for some first aid.



: I feel like a mountain fell on me. Wait, where did I get this laser axe from?

: Weren't you awake at the main terminal?

: I dunno. Things are pretty hazy.



Heading back to the plate center (as a point of reference), go right from here.



Head south when you see the quicksand.



And you'll arrive here at Termi.



See? Would I lie to you guys?



Can people stop greeting us like this soon? It's sorta back-woodsy.

: This is Termi. This is a village that worships a heroine of yore.

Well, hey, I guess that Lassic-killing gig really paid off for the little lady. She's got her own cult-city now!



Oooh, here's a building I haven't seen in a while!



: my feelings in metal. And this is the store that inherited that knowledge.



: binder who came to town a long time ago. I'm sure this story has gotten a little exaggerated. After all, it's an old story.

I'll say. What the hell is a Spell Binder? I've never seen one in this series before. Nor after. What the hell?



Of course, they only sell armor here. However, it's stronger than what I got and has magic amplification built in. I can't argue with that, what with us going after an evil wizard and all. I mean, I have to assume it helps with our defense, but as it raises the MTL POW stat, maybe not?



Still, it's an extra ten points of regular defense.



: It is said that even the most skilled stone mason could not do justice to her beauty.



(That's okay. The most talented 8-bit artists at Sega couldn't handle it all that well either.)



I guess the remake guys did alright, but I might just be saying that because she reminds me of Virginia Maxwell, and she's my favorite heroine to this day.



: she put her adversary down by force, right? Only uncivilizd people would do something like that.

Yup, this girl feels that giving Dark Force a stern talking to is the best way to go! Suddenly I feel like joining the Zio cult. Burn, you imbecile! Burn! Also, why the hell would you move to ALIS LANDALE: THE CITY if you didn't like her? What the crap.



: You'll be stricken by divine punishment! She was a great person who long, long ago confronted and conquered the evil wizard.

Man, these people are almost as weird as...well, everyone else on Motavia. I guess you could write Lassic off as some random 'evil wizard?' Also, divine punishment? What?



: Isn't it romantic? Perfect for a couple, isn't it?

: Stop winking at me. Please.



: A cat? I wonder if it's a pet.

 It's not. 



: Huh? Oh yeah, right, the saving of the world and all! Do go on!

: That's located south of this village. Come to think of it, there was some other person the other day who said he was heading for the tower too. He was tall and gazed at the statue of the heroine for quite a while.

: That sounds like Rune, but, why would he stand around staring at some statue?



: Won't you buy an Alis-Sword? I'll give you a discount!



Bayamare. For some reason I didn't catch this until a week ago. This is the goddamn 'Baya Malay' gift shop. One of the most tedious dungeons in a jRPG, reduced to a gift shop? That's....actually, wait, I'm fine with that!



And, like I'm really not gonna buy everything here? I don't care how useless it may all seem, GIMME!

: If you guys are done buying souveniers...

: Oh, right, sorry!

: Can I at least buy this hat?

: No time! To the land rover! My massive, powerful land rover!



NEXT TIME ON PHANTASY STAR 4

Ups and downs.