Part 21: Extras Chapter - Optionally Inane
To the adoring fans whom I've won hearts from, and those who are just looking this because it was briefly on page one, I have to send my most heartfelt apologies to you. You see, I feel that I've let you all down with my lack of an update for at least a good couple of days now. I can assure you I have not been playing
...
...
About as hard as a ninety year-old man sitting in a nursing home, soiling his diaper, to be honest.
Alright, then! Let's get busy with what we need to be doing here, because fuck I'm almost done with the main story as it were.
Extras Chapter - Optionally Inane
We've come to the critical point, where no other humans from the West have gone before. We've forged an alliance with the strangely-named individuals from the East who seem to only want to tell you that the Eastern Kingdom is pretty good (here's looking at you, Yaaaaaaaaaaan!
).Now, what lies before us is another humorously named objective: Huang City. What do we do? How can we overcome such an obstacle of sheer tight defense? Will this flag-raising really provide an insult, or make this game's already semi-existing plot turn to something about as bad as a Capcom Survival Horror game? The answer is clear, my friends.
We're going to fuck off and go do some optional shit!
The first thing we need to do in this sense is to head back to Mung Village. Why? You will see in just a moment. I can assure you that it's done with even more horrid grammar that one can only find from a translator who speaks English as a second language with the game's script coming to an end. I can hear this guy in my head going 'DAMN GAME SO LONG, I WANT DONE NOW' and then just dicking off with the rest of the dialogue. What you need to do here is find one of the villagers and talk to him, it's the male villager that isn't old as all get out.
Man: Then I find a city of elephants... must be dreaming...
I assure you good sir that you are not dreaming. However, I have to wonder about how much you have been drinking today! After all, pink elephants are a thing of fiction when you've had a bit too much in that regard! So, let's go out to the world map now, and... what ... the hell?
What is this? Let's investigate!
I ...
... am not ...
... out of my mind, am I?
Nah, just kidding! This town is what it is: a town full of fucking elephant people. I've come to expect something like this from the game ever since it shit out the Snowman (
) Village and What's the point of visiting here? Well, if you had Sara or Shonen in your party you could visit this area and heal someone inside here.
Elephant Man: That child grew up nicely. But one day monsters from the Rotten Sea abducted him. Brother immediately went to recover the child, but.... Since then, Brother just slept like this.
I have to wonder what the hell he meant by growing up nicely. Were they going to eat the poor kid?
This is the person you can heal with either Shonen or Sara, which will allow the blue elephant in the other room to become available for partying. He's another Big Swords specialist, but he's REALLY DAMN SLOW. He has something like 36 LP or something really absurd, so he can abuse the Dragon God spell.
Enough about this party member, what's the REAL catch to this place? The shops sell Magic and Tech potions sure, but if we go into the large building in the center of the town, we will get our true reward out of this place.
This will unlock the Rotten Sea for us to traverse. It is crammed full of enemies some of which can be difficult, but I would pick up some tech/magic potions just so you can area attack and clear the monsters to your heart's content. I've tried often dodging everything but I just don't have enough ninja in me to do it, it seems.
KATRINA RUSHES TO...
SWAMPY RUINS, ACT 1
This is of course an optional area. You absolutely do not need to go here for any plot reasons or any quests/secrets. This is just an area that has about three or so pieces of really nice equipment and a chance for a fourth, if you fucked up in Ice Galaxy. It's also really damn short as it is, with most of the areas that branch off being just a small treasure room or just a dead end. There's really not much to this place, which is why it's not being covered solely in just an update of its own!
I will at least give some direction here. The rooms to the left and then the first area to the right, the stairs up, are dead ends. There's some treasure involved but I don't think it's too worth it. You want to head up the path to the right, but take the second exit, on the left side of the wall or whatnot.
The stairs down to Katrina's immediate right are where you want to go if you're looking for the bigger treasures. Going through that door above you will get you to the other side of this room eventually and you'll find some more treasure that just really isn't worth it, unless you LOVE Crocodile armor.
Going down the stairs will lead you to another area where there's a dead end with treasure before there's a way further into the dungeon. It's all a bit easy to explore if you've made it this far (and gotten past the Divine Tower without screaming at the dead ends) so there's really not much need to emphasize it. There's one place though that I will mention.
The middle area here is a dead end, with the bottom path being a great treasure spot and the top being the way to continue onward. Speaking of great treasure, holy shit the chests here rule.
This is the best axe in the game if you are patient enough. You have to spend a good deal of time trying to learn its built-in tech, Orbit Borer. It's another one of those repeater techs if I am not mistaken, but it's the best axe attack in the game. Yo-yo is up there as well but it is limited by the fact that the Francisca is a really weak axe compared to this.
Golden jelly guys rarely drop this, but man it is really amazing. It will regen 10% of your max HP every round that you live and it is quite handy despite the crappy physical defense and the fact that it makes you weak to heat. If I had enough time and patience I would hunt down golden jelly guys for at least a good day or two and gather up enough to outfit my entire party. That way I could use formations that aren't shitty like Genbu and have the regen. (Whirlwind and Speculation are far superior, as are Power Raise and Phoenix Dance.)
Now, let us once again traverse the vastness that is the upper path. It is sure to be teaming with unspeakable mazery, yes?
No, not really. This shield is awesome. It's a buckler evade sort and it triggers against every effect just about, but only at 20%. It is very
and 
and maybe even a little 
However, this was too easy. The game instead sends a boss battle your way! Well, I say it's a boss battle because it uses the old boss theme, but it's not even that hard if you've made it your way here after all of the Abyss Gates.
This here is a Green Dragon Ruler! He's not too tough, but he definitely has a lot of physical defense. That can be take care of with one move, as it were.
This is the Ultimate staff/mace skill, and it rules. Each hit reduces enemy defense though I don't know how long it lasts. I know it stacks to a certain point and is quite helpful as a party-wide buff. Once again, as this is a dragon ruler you might want to save before this boss fight and then resume if it doesn't drop a dragon spear, if you want multiple copies or are not wanting to do the Shinon secret.
This is the end of the Rotten Sea, and the reward is quite decent on all accounts. The Will Buckler is a great asset if you want to put someone in the middle of the party in Phoenix Dance. Let's continue on back to the Great Prairie. Remember the Crystal Ruins? We're going to explore that place too!
This is my favorite dungeon as far as scenery and music goes. It's a very peaceful place despite the monsters, and the crystals are so nice and dreaaaaaaaaamy
. I'd make a joke about ambience but we get probated for that.
You can safely ignore the treasures and enemies in this room. They're just spirit stones and not really worth it unless you are OCD about closed chests.
This is a split room right here, and we can choose to either explore to the left or right. For now, I will go to the left and see what's going on.
Oh no! A woman is being surrounded by frogs! Let us massacre them and make sure that we get our reward, yes? Also, for those of you who are heartless, there is a big hole you can fall down in this room, and it will take you to a place full of snakes. Of course, there are stairs to lead you back up that are nearby, unlike Nethack.
Oh dear, it's an enemy as well. Eh, I figured it was going to be like this, so let us administer some more pain before we go down the stairs that she started near, to the left.
Here are some of the unique guardians to this place: The Crystal Dragons. They usually suck if you come here early, but for the most part they are a pushover. Yes, you can come here rather early in the game. In fact, you can visit as soon as you hear about the Dry River from the lady at the Divine Tower. Now, what could these guys be guarding? Not really much to be honest. You get another magic beast leather set and some Star Trail armor that is not that great because it makes you weak to arrows and other elements, and only gives +1 int. The Star armor you can make from the blacksmith is vastly superior!
There is more to this, however! You can fall down the pit in this room, and so we shall do that.
This area is full of spirit type enemies, so it shouldn't be too bad. There are a ton of them though, so you might be battling for a while! There's a spot where you can go down the stairs to the left, let's visit that place first.
There are a lot of giant enemies here, but they are slow and easy to avoid. There's a titan suit in this room to take, and it is one of the better full body armor pieces in the game, and quite handy for someone like Fairy.
There is also a pit in the spirit room. This is on the rightmost side of the area where we fell from the Crystal Dragon room. Let us investigate! By investigate of course, I mean dramatically jumping down, and yelling at the top of our lungs.
It turns out that it was a mistake to fall into this pit. There's really nothing interesting here, to be honest. Let's just go up these stairs here because the stairs down below us is a dead end with a lonely slime.
Katrina: Hello, Mister Slime. How do you fare today?
Slime: The weather is fine and I am out for a light jaunty jape through the junctions of this jeweled hovel, madam.
The stairs continue up through slime-infested areas to this place. Clearly, the game is telling you the only solution to all of this is to fall down a pit.
A pit ... leading to some more fucking crystal dragons that just takes you back to the beginning!
In either case, let me investigate the stairs that were down the first pit.
Great, some more slimes! Just what I always wanted! These guys have a nasty habit of splitting and copying themselves while you are busy dodging them and getting the treasure. I hate slime fights because golden baums are annoying as shit.
Let us go back to the beginning, where the stairs split to the left and right, with the stairs going up to the right.
Yes, this set of stairs, the third room in! This leads to a rather abrupt area, one that has mediocre treasure and whatnot.
Going through here, you can find a treasure chest with 1000 gold that is guarded by some flowers.
Pitiful treasure here, and it's not even worth mentioning. I didn't see any other special doors and whatnot, so I guess this is the end of my favorite dungeon of the game.
Now, what did I promise here? Oh, right! I was going to tell you all about how Moon and Sun magic works, because man they're a great set of spells. So great that you can't even get all of them until you manage to painfully make your way here to Asian Land after four abyss gates, or break the game with a lot of money after hearing about the Dry River.
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Let us begin with the spell listing!
Sun Magic - Sun Magic, later on, is quite defensive, and also focused on pure damage compared to Moon Magic. The final spell is a shield, but the rest rely a lot on raw intelligence, be it for healing or damage.
Sunlight - Basic Sun spell, hits all enemies and does more damage to undead.
Heat Wave - Attack all enemies, fairly decent damage and lowers enemy agility minorly.
Star Fixer - Attacks one target, has a chance to paralyze.
Day Break - Instant death move against undead, I think? I've never used it often.
Sun Wind - Strong attack on all enemies.
Revival Light - Strongest heal in the game, and recovers most every status effect.
Sun Illusion - Powerful defensive spell, as it will block hits for you from time to time if they are single target skills, I believe.
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Moon Magic - Moon Magic is far more offensive than Sun Magic, at least at the end. A lot of it has to do with status buffs or status effects, so it works with someone who has a high Will stat, and Charm for one of the spells.
Shadow Bolt - Basic Moon spell, does alright damage and can paralyze the enemy you hit.
Moonglow - One of the best buffs in the game, increases speed and magic defense.
Soul Freeze - Attacks all enemies for decent damage, and has a chance to paralyze each one.
Moon Shine - A handy heal for the game, and it may even remove Dark status from the healed person.
Moon Read - I believe this is a gravity effect, like Demi from Final Fantasy games. It tries to halve current HP, or whatnot.
Charm Light - Attempts to charm all enemies that are of the opposite gender to the caster. It also increases charisma for the one casting.
Shadowservant - The most unbalanced spell in the game. It will take one hit for you without you taking damage, but the best effect is when it stays there. If you still have the servant up, it will mirror your action and provide even more damage or healing for whatever you do.
There we are! Just one more segment before the final dungeon of the game.
