Part 22: Extras Part Two - Loose Ends Start to Tighten

I can feel it in the air, folks... I'm feeling better now! You know what that means, right? That means I love you, and I'm going to gift you with some more words over the internet to express my undying adoration for all of you. Well, except for that guy that comes into threads and tries to get things named after hentai games.

Extras Part Two - Loose Ends Start to Tighten

I didn't mean to make a vaguely sexual joke... or did I? Regardless, we are on the final legs of the things we must need to do before we can continue on with the plot(?) of this game. Are you excited? Are you fucking giddy? I hope so, because I didn't endure getting things removed from my throat at hospitals and having my beautiful voice screwed with just to come back to a bunch of c00lberts, you know.

So, where were we? Right, right... there was one place we should have checked after closing one of the Abyss Gates, considering the plot of this game is driven by those closings.


We shall head back to this place called Lance, most assuredly!


Remember this place? This is where we obtained the Royal Ring to go down to the Abyss Gate dungeon in Pidona. All we do is go back and talk to the same man who gave us the ring, of course. Everyone else in the house is still not very important it seems.


Oh hello there. What is this, Trial of the Holy King? Well, this is what is unlocked for you once you complete at least one Abyss Dungeon, as mentioned before.


Descendant: ...to select a person who has the power to close the gates. That's the real purpose of the Holy Temple. I know that the war with Abyss began since the day the Death Eclipse occurred therefore I opened the sealed door. However, up to now, no one has passed the trial. The warriors who fight with the new Destined Child haven't appeared either... ( )

That's that for introductions for the Holy Temple Trials! Just tell the man that you will take the challenge and he'll basically say 'Okay, go and do it.'

Of course, he will also give you another warning.




Yep! You can't even access the menu when you're in the middle of a trial, so preparation is needed beforehand. The trials are all forgiving, though, and you can take them as many times as you'd like if you fail though it is quite hard to not succeed. So, then! Let us go to the left exit in Lance and you'll find your way to a nice area of stairs and peaceful music.

First and foremost, we need a new sixth member of the party, and we might as well get a little more diverse right now while we still can, right?


It's not in my standards of beliefs to just do things with only one emoticon, so...


Random silliness aside, Harid is actually one of the better party members in the game, though his accuracy with a sword suffers. He's good with normal swords as well as kung fu, and possibly spears. It's too horrible for me to even give him a spear to use because of racism (yes, even though he's more of an Egyptian sort of man) overtones. I dunno, but there is one 'downside' to Harid in that you have to have a Scimitar in his main weapon slot. This isn't a huge problem considering that, well, you can just switch weapons. Normal swords don't have the same problem mace users have in the form of 'NOT ENOUGH WEAPON SLOTS'


There's the apparent 'casket' of the Holy King right there, I think. This place is nice to look at on occasion. In either case, there are trial areas to the left and right of this place, and they are pretty simple to get to. Let's go with heading to the left for now!

You just meander along and you'll wind up in a room full of... flowers?




Important thing to note here: You must avoid the women after this. Just keep going up and talking to the one directly blocking the path. You will then launch into a battle similar to to this screen.


It's a good thing I have Fairy who is good at using bows! Also, with Feather Boots, she has 27 speed, which is quite phenomenal if I do say so myself. The point of these battles is to be able to hit the ninja in the back with a bow, because otherwise he throws a fit and disqualifies you from playing in his playground. There is a simple solution for this.


If I remember correctly, Flash Arrow does not miss and it is an area attack. Considering I am in the Whirlwind formation that boosts speed, Fairy almost always acts first and gets the Flash Arrow off.


You thwarted my ninja powers, including my mighty handheld fan! Splendid!

This, uh, continues for a few more rooms, and I'd rather not show you repeated images because it's not too terribly funny to be honest. It's just more surprised ninjas gasping at the fact that you could hit them at all with your bow and your fairy. Well, that is, if you picked up Fairy. You might be using someone like Paul, or hell even Sara. Whatever, man. I do what I'm told to do here.

What is our reward for all of this, exactly? What could we have possibly done all of this work with a bow to attain something?


Hrrr hrrr hey guys, we got Fairy again. Guess we can use it to sprinkle dust around and fly around like a lollygagger, yes? That's such an awesome and fun word, though...

This is the Fairy Bow. I have no idea why it is weaker than the Enhanced Bow, but it gives a special effect called the Fairy Arrow. I don't remember what was so special about the shot, maybe a chance at instant death? Who knows, as I never really used it. Most of the Holy King items fall under this category except for the spear, to be honest.

Our next trip leads us over to the far right of the area, past the creepy little tomb-like place.










There's no penalty for taking either route, unless you find an unbeatable enemy as a penalty early on. The enemies on the right are pretty fierce if you're here early in the game, so I would avoid it if you're not too sure of yourself. Here is what the enemies are:


I can see this guy being a bit nasty if you're only around 500ish HP.


This is mostly an annoyance monster, but again effective and difficult if you're underpowered.


This guy isn't really that menacing. He should've been the first fight, with the Red Dragon as the final fight here. On the plus side, if you did prepare, I think you can still jack his weapons with Stealing Hands if you have the skill.

That wraps it up for the Test of Royalties on the short road. The area on the left is longer, yes, but it is populated by much weaker enemies, though they certainly jet around really fast and it's mostly hard to avoid them. What are they? Well, it's about 75% populated by just these guys...


Not to be confused with the cat, or Alice, or American McGee to be honest. As was mentioned earlier, the paths lead to the same place.


Here comes another joke about how we just got a historical person in a chest! Haha! Heeha! Ho ho!

This is the Holy King helmet. It's alright as far as defense and magic defense are concerned, but it helps to protect against both Dark and Confusion status. Again, it's a nice added bonus, but it hardly ever gets used. The Holy King items just kind of need more going for them.

So, well, that was left and right. Where else could we possibly go, huh?


Hey, it's the creepy casket! It might not be fairly obvious at first, but just exam around it and it will open up to reveal a staircase!


Here comes a Zelda joke! Get ready for it!



So, what do we find when we traverse down this precarious position, exactly?


This skeleton dude just sitting around, waiting for the day someone would actually be dumb enough and try to move the Holy King's casket.


I do not recommend the Phoenix Dance formation for this battle. Each round, the Royal Knight will attack four times with Life Break or whatnot, and it drains 1 LP each hit. Uhhh, it's bad basically if he focuses on just one person for more than one round. In my first play, I put Fairy in the middle and she was LP killed.

Kill him as fast as you can pretty much, and hope that you aren't LP killed. It can be a little rough, but you can also try to use moves that auto crit on undead, such as Southern Cross and Evil Breaker if you have those moves.

What do you get for thwarting this foe?

GREAT! Fantastic.


What's down here, exactly? Well, it's a quick walk to this treasure room, here...


This chest is a fucking lie, though. As soon as you pick it up you are doomed to fall down. You are doomed to fall, continually down until...


You encounter hippies? What shall we ever do? Let's go and talk to them, maybe they know the way...


...out. This battle is fucking obnoxious. The goal is to kill the two males in the back but the enemies keep blasting you with area charm spells. You can do this in commander mode harmlessly or you can get someone who is immune to charm, like Leonid.

Either way, you get the 'Heartache' item once you've finished this battle, and you're free to continue on through the painful test dungeon.


This place is simple as there is only one other exit to the place. The enemies will randomly be set to attack after you or attack before you, and you will be told as the battle begins. I believe you can run through this place just fine without any hindrance to your formation, but I played it safe regardless.

Again the question burns in my mind... What exactly is the reward for this? What could I possibly be gifted with for the completion of this rather lackluster dungeon?


Well, I guess the Holy King's boots are okay. They have decent defense but give you stun resistance, which... can be handy sometimes

... I guess.

With that, my friends, the Trials of the Holy King are complete!

There is one other place that I have left unfinished for now, and for a good reason: The Ancient Ruins. Now, there's not anything else left there to talk about besides the prayer of death boss, and I'll show that in due time.


Why am I making such an emphasis on this place? Well, it's where you will train and learn your ultimates! It's a good spot to do such at least. There is a stationary demon that you can find in the dungeon which has the chance to turn into the strongest normal encounter in the game.


Behold the Asura in all of its might and splendor! It can do two strings of attacks per turn, which can be quite mean. I've had it wreck my entire party with two heat waves, and if you have any female party members, they can be subject to its pheromone attack. It's pretty nasty, and I don't advise you training to learn a tech with more than just one person while you fight these.

Basically, as it is the strongest enemy in the game it is used as tech fodder. You can train in all of the ultimate techs providing a character can learn them and though they are mean and can kill you quite easily, the rewards of learning these skills is quite high.

Now, once you are done with your marathon of training, turn off your montage music and head back to where you'd given the Prayer of Life, if you'd done the Shinon secret that is. Note that once you finish this place, you can no longer use it for tech training! Just remember that, and if you are truly ready, continue onward...

The Prayer of Death

( Vimeo / Youtube )

With that, folks, the loose ends are now tied and there is not much else keeping us away from what awaits in the Eastern Lands. Thanks for being patient with me, because goddamn I didn't bank on getting sick before New Years.