Part 19: Terra Forming With A K-9

I do believe we're off to Burg's Restaurant again now. The only difference between now and last time, is there's no mandatory fights in every goddamn room. Also the enemies aren't the same as in the Wonder Woods any more; they're slightly stronger... which basically means they have over 100 HP each. Nothing threatening, just a bit more time consuming (by a few seconds).



: I'm gonna use my special BBQ to conquer the world! Mu ha ha! Nobody will know about my plans until it's too late!
: Ahem...We know already...
: What!? How can that be!?

Oh, you know; some old dude at the only other restaurant on this continent told us about it. Same old, same old.

: What am I going to do!? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!? Miss Myao's not gonna be happy about this... You've left me no choice. I must get rid of you one and for all. No one must know about my plans for world domination!
: Destroy, meow, destroy, meow!



Second boss, same as the first. Little bit stronger, not any worse. Well, he has a whole one new move (which is the only thing he gets the chance to really do appropriately) that hits the entire party for low double digit damage. Aside from that, he's pretty much just a rehash of the first fight; he's a bit stronger I guess? Though that might be because I let him have a second turn this time around. As for the Thunder Punch; that costs 50 SP without the Holy Charm. Yeah... those puppet quest skills are some of Cornet's most devestating moves but also cost the most SP out of everything.

Oh, and this is the last time you'll ever see Kid (in combat at least). From this chapter onwards, you can rack up puppets pretty quickly; there's 3 (arguably 4) in this chapter alone.



: This is the second time you've gotten in my way... You won't get away with this...
: Yeah, yeah, meow!

And they run off, presumably to complain about getting their asses kicked again. You'd think they'd see it coming by now; we've been trouncing the smaller cats for 4 straight chapters after all.



: The Captain's daughter will definitely eat this up.

Yes, that was what Burg was cooking before we walked in and kicked his ass. This made the entire first half of this blatant fetch quest completely pointless. If you check your inventory at this point, you're still carrying around the Toad from then in addition to this barbecued one.



: You know it's pretty mean to tell a girl that she's fat!
Soldier: What? Fat!? I never said that!
: Don't pretend like you don't know what we're talking about! It's written all over your face! Because of your stupid comment, she stopped eating, you jerk!
Soldier: What? I thought she was sick.
: She's sick alright! And I blame it all on you! You lame excuse for a man!
Soldier: This is all some kind of big understanding! W...wait! I know! I just said that she had a full figure and that she was very feminine.
: Full figure!?

One quick fade to black later...



: You should really think about what you say before you say something... Or else, these things happen, you know.
Soldier: I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have used the term, FULL FIGURED. I only wanted to compliment you.
Girl: It's alright. I didn't realise what you were trying to tell me.



Since Cornet turns to face towards the screen at this point, it gives the impression that she's outright asking the player why we had to waste our time. On the plus side, we got to beat up cats again and that's always fulfilling; even if there is no challenge to it.

Captain: A promise is a promise. I'll take you to BlueCat any time! Let me know when you want to go to BlueCat! Arrr!

You actually have to speak to him again before it's added to the world map, at which point you can go there whenever. You can leave now and the next plot scene occurs regardless but if you don't speak to the captain manually then you're just stuck wondering if it glitched or not.




: I hate waiting for things like this.
: But what else can we do?
: Gao's right, meow. It was Marjoly's fault to begin with!
: I know. I can;t believe she can't undo her own spell! Ha ha ha!!
: Shut up!!!
: I'm sorry it took so long, Marjoly.
: It's about time... Well, what's the word? DId you find a way to reverse the spell?
: Yes.
: I knew I could depend on you, Crowdia. So...how? How? How!?
: In order to undo the spell you cast on the Prince, you need-
: Come on! On with it!
: ...This kiss...



: Well, Marjoly isn't a maiden. That's for sure!
: Tell me about it...
: Shut up, you two!
: I see... The kiss of a maiden who truly loves him. Hmmm... How wonderful! It's really romantic if you think about it...
: Oh, my lovely Prince! I shall free you from your stone prison... With the touch of my lips, I shall make you flesh and blood once more.



: I told you so!
: Shut up!!
: Crowdia! Are you sure this is the only way to break the spell?
: I'm quite sure, Marjoly. You're just not...ahem..a maiden anymore.
: Well, then... You're gonna have to find me another way to undo the spell, aren't you? And don't come back until you find something useful! Got it!?
: Yes ma'am!!

Now with that amount of plot out of the way, let's go get an awesome puppet. It requires going back to Orange Village after that scene, but before entering the dungeon at the end of the chapter; that is an awfully small window, actually, and it's very easy to miss because of it.



The next puppet is a dead dog. It makes sense, I swear.



: This toy dog wants to join us! Why don't you play your horn?

So, either Koro was never a real dog to begin with, or his ghost-puppet thing is just a toy which makes no sense either way. But who cares?



We just got a robot dog. And he is awesome. How awesome?



He is the fastest character. His element is Thunder, like L, and he can actually deal damage worth a damn. Shockwave sucks but his other skills are all pretty damn good in their own rights, and his regular damage is almost on par with Kururu's. There's really no good reason to not use him in place of whoever you have currently occupying your fourth slot.

I said "fourth" for a reason; having a dedicated healer might seem superfluous, since combat is seemingly always an utter massacre in either your favour or the games but Sharte does it pretty well and she throws out damaging spells with aplomb; this might not seem like a big deal since you can just trash most things with physicals, but some of the most powerful enemies are all dark elemental.




: Are you impressed?
: Yeah! The view from here is fantastic!
: Well, enough sightseeing. Let's keep goin'!



Since i usually just show the map and be done with it, I figure now's as good a time as any to bring back the full top screen just to put some things into perspective. Taking 2 and a half hours to reach this point is actually fairly slow; the first time I got this far, it took about half an hour less time. Conversely, I'm a level or two higher than expected with everyone (other than Koro for obvious reasons). Being overlevelled here doesn't make combat any easier.



He's referring to a dungeon that you shouldn't even think about entering until sometime during the next chapter (when you have to). The enemies are intended to be taken on at about 10 levels higher than I am. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? It sure as hell does to me!



You can't see them very well, but just in front of Cornet is a set of stairs that lead to the dungeon in question.



The BlueCat Underground... looks like that cave we got Tell in a while back, doesn't it? The reason for that is, well, about half the dungeons look like this. There are minor variations (i.e. different coloured walls) but this type is a good half of them, if not more. Most rooms look completely identical, making dungeon navigation complete and utter hell when you don't have a map. The DS version does have a map... though it's completely goddamn useless. It doesn't give you any indication of where the entrance or exit to an area is, nor does it tell how large the dungeon is; most, if not all, dungeons are several floors tall and the map only shows one at a time. It also doesn't tell you where any stairs are, so you're completely on your own there too. It's decent-ish for towns and small places like the Wonder Woods but for dungeon crawling, you're better off just making your own.



Still, the enemies here are hella fun to fight right now. Those two mushrooms ALONE could kick my ass at this point if I just stuck it on Auto; they can put you to sleep and/or charm you. Neither is very fun to be hit by. Charm, in particular, sucks if someone like Kururu or Koro gets hit by it... it completely randomises their target to be anyone in the fight, and they'll always use a physical attack. Sleep, uh, does exactly what you'd expect it to.

The Inotium Lizard palette swaps are pretty tame compared, only being able to hit hard with a physical attack, take reduced damage from just about everything and are Dark elemental.



The fights are awesomely challenging and give out pretty poor EXP. You can get more than that from weaker enemies, in less time and thus gain way more EXP/hr if you're interested in that kind of thing. The money is good though, but the risk isn't really worth the reward. It's just a fun challenge at this point, and this place has given me one of the only two game overs I've ever received (Charmed Kururu; Sharte and Cornet were both asleep...).



If you really want to grind here (or just fight until you're steamrolling these guys too), it's worth noting that Inns do not exist in this game. Nor can you just go sleep in Cornet's bed. No, you get full healing by examining statues. It doesn't matter what it's a statue of or where it is. It just has to be a statue.



Alternatively, if you just want to upgrade everyone's equipment from being a sort of decent attack increase to making them all complete and utter gods at this point, BlueCat is the place to go. It's ridiculously expensive however; note the Cat'sPaw only costs 500. That's a +5 to attack; Dragon'sClaw is twice as effective and 20 times as expensive. Seems just a tad disproportionate, doesn't it? Though, the most useful upgrades have to be stupidly expensive; there's literally nothing else worth spending money on. Healing items are all but useless to buy since you get them as drops from battle almost all the time, and you can easily get more money than you know what to do with before too long.

Oh, and there +7 upgrades for some stats (and a +20 for at least one) but those are only available as either rare drops or found in treasure chests later.



Blahblahblah, gotta go to the Tower of Wisdom. Right, okay, whatever.



Let's not do that though. Instead, let's go to this mine because, hey, why not?

Oh, and for anyone who's wondering if there's anything you can miss in dungeons etc. I'll point out the more important ones - for this one? PUT SHARTE IN YOUR PARTY. There's nothing worth a damn here if you don't do that.



Yet another dungeon like this. Probably guessed as much from the name, though.

As maps are utterly useless from pretty much this point I'll just omit them aside from at important points.



Compared to the enemies at BlueCat itself, these guys are all utter jokes. Hell, most of them were at Burg's Restaurant.



The one good thing about dungeons is that you'll almost invariably gain a ridiculous amount of levels by walking through them. This place isn't particularly large or complex but most characters will still likely gain at least 3 or 4 levels unless you just run from everything.

Oh and GigaStorm is yet-another-damage-increase for the multi-target thunder spells. Nothing fancy.



I... uh... I'm not entirely sure what this actually does. It's description says that it "protects against some magic" but I've never used it so I'm not sure what it means by that. I'd guess it just reduces magic damage received though.



All of Koro's skills are multi-target. All of Koro's skill, barring Shockwave, inflict ailments. Charm Howl inflicts charm (or at least tries to) on every enemy. It's the first skill he actually learns, and it's one of the more useful ones.



Hey, lookit, a Metal Slime! Uhh... well, it might as well be. It's not that rare an encouter, though it only spawns near the end of the dungeon. It's earth elemental (no wind attacks available yet unfortunately) and hits bloody hard. Unlike most other "Metal Slime" type enemies, this guy DOESN'T run away; he doesn't need to. He shrugs off physical attacks like their nothing - hell, most of the time even Kururu and Koro will either miss or deal 0 damage like that. His own attacks can deal upwards of 80 damage at this point. On the plus side, he has damn near no resistance to magic.



Lots of EXP and as good as no money. Not really worth trying to grind off of, but it's still quicker than the BlueCat Underground enemies.



See? Everyone gained 3 levels in like 10 minutes. Also just shy of 6,000 Inotium in the same time period which tells you something about how easy it is to gain money. Oh, and I chose this particular room to be highlighted on the map for a reason; in the room to the left there's an optional scene that only occurs if Sharte is in the party before entering the dungeon and is not removed (obviously, you could remove her afterwards if you really wanted to).



: Sharte! What are you doing here?
: What do you mean by that? I asked Cornet to help me look for you. Come with me, okay?
: No way! I want to become a human. That's why I'm attacking any human looking for the CAT'S EYE.
: Terra, doing this won't let you become a human! If anything, it'll push you further away from your dream...
: Shut up! You don't know anything! Cornet, you're going down first. Prepare to die...



As you likely already guessed from both her appearance and attitude, Terra is Dark elemental. Ordinarily, this would mean that Sharte could just trash her effortlessly with MegaSaint, but Terra has a decent magical defence. On the other hand, she has a pretty crap intelligence stat so her spells aren't that threatening even if they were aimed at Sharte. Aside from weakness abuse being a worse strategy for a change, there's no real problems with this fight. I guess she could put the party to sleep or poison them but that's not particularly likely.




Oh no, three Nightmares! Whatever could you do against them?

Okay, but, seriously this fight is an utter joke. The three of them together are less of a threat than Terra was and they aren't even buffed from the last time we fought one!



: I wanted so much to be human... Don't you feel the same?
: Why? I'm being loved, and I'm happy.
: You don't know anything about what I've been through. You don't know what it's like to be kicked everyday and left to rot in a river! I can't be loved!
: I see...You really do want to become a human...
: I don't just want to be loved. I want to love others, at my will.
: And that's why you joined the monsters?
: I know what I did was wrong... But they told me that they'd turn me into a human if I helped them...
: Cornet, will you help Terra with your horn? If there's anyone who knows anything about love, it's you, Cornet.



Now, if you remember what Sharte said way back at the start about wanting to find Terra you'd be forgiven for thinking that this meant her quest thing was complete. You'd also be completely and utterly wrong. No, this quest is one of a few that is purely related to combat; in order to complete the quest, you need both Sharte and Terra and they both need to be at least level 32. In Sharte's case, this means she'll have learned all her spells. In Terra's case, she'll have learned all but one. Not quite what you'd expect, now is it?



As for Terra? Not quite as strong as when you were fighting her. She's underlevelled a fair bit, but this becomes a recurring theme amongst every puppet from now onwards anyway, and she's pretty subpar statistically. The only saving grace she has, is that she's the first Dark elemental puppet... but Light enemies are obscenely rare. I guess she can use a few ailments which help a little, but her Intelligence is her lowest stat for some bizarre reason and she has an awfully low amount of SP. And, yes, she is a mage character but her initial stats really don't show it.



The entire point of coming to the mine is to get this. It seems useless, but I swear it isn't.

Next time: The Tower of Babel Wisdom.