Part 7: The Army of One

The Army of One


Having arrived on the Western Continent, we're not getting much of a choice where to go next.


Dual West Town is not as boring as all the other towns have been, but let's still focus on the interesting parts.





But there is actually nothing special inside.

There is a Love Counter here and that's it. Pretty much a missed opportunity. Also, I'm sorry but I forgot to cap Hayami's initial thoughts. Cause I also forgot how quickly you rack up points with her and overshot it.

There is also another interesting house here.

This girl is wrapped up in her homework, but if you check the shelf behind her...


You get a free skill for Ryle! It's a group attack and actually does a decent amount of damage.


I honestly don't know if this is a real place. Tell/PM me if you know!

Also can you spot the orb in that picture?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0h5Cnn2gAw
It would be kinda funny if the rocks were actually made out of condoms..


The shop is run by a pair of anime twins with an annoying music and dialog bit. I'll spare you this time, since it's really lame. While I buy some armor for Hayami, I also discover that I have a second rock cutter in my inventory.


For some reason it's also better than the other one? No idea why, but this happens every time. Of course, Hayami uses the better one.

With that out of the way, let's progress!


"Really? Are you serious!?"

"According to my source, some WACKO just became the new High Chancellor."

"Any other news about the capital?"

"I have been sent down here for some time, no more updates though.."


Then he fucks off..

"Ryle Dono... You should pull yourself away from the capital."

"How come?"

"Sessha can't tell you everything but White Shinobi army is guarding the Factoria Castle at this moment. And so far, Ryle Dono hasn't been content with the capital's recent policies. Sessha know Ryle Dono will soon charge into the castle to contest your complaints...Then you'll lose your life by the hands of the White Shinobi!"

"!! But you're on their side! I heard the traitors get punished severely for leaking information."

"Sessha can't just seat around and do nothing...from now on sessha am out of White Shinobi!"

"W-What!?"

"To tell the truth, all White Shinobi except sessha, are being brainwashed and being controlled."

Now we're getting somewhere...

"To be able to hypnotize the White Shinobi of iron will...Who can it be?"

"Sessha can't tell you that. They will put Ryle Dono on their black list."




A choice pops up here, and it should be obvious that the first line is right.

"We can't just ignore them! They're still your friends."

"I'll give you a hand. Let's go to the capital together!"

"No you must not! Single Shinobi alone can handle 50 regular soldiers. Did you know that?"

This is a legit plot point. The other Ninjas in Hayami's clan are just so powerful, that normal people can't handle them.

"(Not only that, you are...)"

Also

"Don't you want to free your friends!?"

"!! Of course, Sessha want to."

"Then stop but this, and but that! I won't let them go on like this!!"

"Ryle Dono..."

"Alrighty then, let's go! To the capital, Factoria Castle."

"(Just as I thought...this man must be the...)"

What?! The man of your dreams? The real Jesus? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?

Att 14 >>> 17

As said, you kinda race through the attraction ladder with Hayami, and it's not over.

Well, we now have our next objective, but how do we get there?

Ah, of course! The only other place on the map.

With Hayami's X-ray skill, you can also find a hidden stash of Jello right before the forest. I forgot to grab them while recording this update, but did it off-screen.

There are also a few new enemies around, but I only encountered one while recording.

Yeah! 420 bro!

Trolls are generic melee guys. Though, they have a buff that raises all their stats and heals them. Also, this buff makes them quite agile and raises their dodge chance by a good amount. More annoying than dangerous.

When you approach the forest, a scene starts...


"...Rain?"

"Huh? Ryle Dono-! Watch out!!"


Hayami pushes Ryle out of the way...

"Who's there?!"

*POOOF*


Oh no, it's one of those guys than can fight 50 normal people!

"It's a White Shinobi!"

"Sessha won't allow a traitor like you to live! Kakugo!!" (Ready to die!!)


Why are you impressed? He didn't really do anything yet.

"Ryle Dono! Let sessha take care of him! Run away!!"

"Too late! He knows my face now. We better capture him alive!!"

"It's impossible to capture a Shinobi by ordinary men!!"

"Wait! Look at that! What's that thing on his shoulder?"

"That's? Sessha senses evil energy from it."

I smell a MacGuffin...


You can see the thing on his shoulder, and it's a legit part of the coming plot.

"That thing on his shoulder might be the cause of brain-washing!!"

"Stop chattering!"

CLINK-CLANK _{That's my impression of sword noises, jfyi}

"Ryle Dono!!"

"Tsk! No time for lecture! Anyway, concentrate your attack on the thing on ninja's shoulder!"


Well, it should be clear what we have to do here. Instead of attacking the Ninja, you have to target the thing on his shoulder which is called "Monster Cell". Hayami also can't really use her skills as they all are group attacks. If you kill the Ninja, you'll get a game-over message which says that Ryle and Hayami got captured by the Royal army for killing a Ninja. Seriously, just like that.

The fight itself is more tedious than hard. Don't get me wrong, the Ninja puts out a steady stream of damage, but you can keep it in check with potions. The cell has a lot of HP, good defense and will constantly block, making it even more resilient. It's pretty boring to just hack away at it, always wishing for the fight to finally be over.

Have Hayami's attack animation.

It goes by quite fast.

Since other posters already pointed out that the animations are a bit weird, let's look a still from Hayami.

Her animation is pretty smooth, but look at them big ol titties.

Let's skip to the point where I killed that fucking tank cell.

"Look! That weird thing fell off!!"



"Thank goodness! You've been controlled by that "Cell", now you're fine!"

"Sessha was brainwashed? That's why...Sorry! You guys saved sessha's life!"

"You should thank this gentleman, he was the one who noticed the "Cell" controlling you."

Where are your magic eyes now, hmm?!

"Although sessha was under it's influence, it's still sessha's fault trying to harm both of you! Don't know how sessha shall repay the debt!!"

"Don't worry about it. It's ok. But I would like to ask you some questions if you don't mind."

Ask him how much money he has on him, and then take it! Seriously, I want some quest rewards.



"Sessha am Gohu."

"First, tell me the current situation of Factoria Castle."

Ryle learned about the capital from Gohu.

I have no idea why Flare decided to include these lines on a black screen. The characters are still going to explain everything anyway. Might as well do it first hand?

"Now the capital is controlled not by the king, but by the Prince Dyss and the High Chancellor Xaktor."

Haha, Xaktor? Really? That sounds like a villain I would have come up with in middle school.

"Correct. Sessha don't know how they got into the throne, but they are current rulers of Factoria."

"So the crown prince overthrew his own father by the lust for power...Is that it?"

"No. In sessha's opinion, Prince Dyss is just a puppet manipulated by Xaktor, the High Chancellor."

"You mean the Monster Cell belongs to that Xaktor guy, and not the prince?"

"His Highness always had the trust among all people of Factoria, for his good leadership. Xaktor must be behind all this!"

"I can't draw the conclusion with the information I just got. I must go to Factoria Castle."

"Sessha will use other route and gather more clues, focus on rescuing comrades. Hayami, what about you?"

"Sessha want to follow Ryle Dono."

"Understood, then see you later!!"

Then Gohu poofs away, but he's our pal now!



"Since sessha already received your boat, it's sessha's turn to return the favor. And so..."

"Hmm...ninja's way of life, I guess? I'll count on you again from now on, Hayami!"

"Thank you for the permission."

The whole event spits out three VPs and more attraction. Att 17 >>> 20

Now I also realize that I forgot to check Hayami's feelings and hurry back to the Love Counter.

I have no idea when we saved her, but that respect part is very true. Hayami talks very formal towards Ryle. Maybe it is connected to the secret thing she seems to know about?

Well, no we're free to enter the forest.

It's not immediately obvious, but the little statue here has some important info on it.

There are strange marks carved on the stone lamp. Looks like some kind of code...

"...*looking at marks* Ryle Dono, looks like they have set booby traps in this area. Use sessha's X-ray Vision while you're traveling."

So here we really get introduced to traps. The way through the forest is littered with them, and most of them cause poison. Since they are mechanical, Hayami can block them if you happen to trigger one.

"!!"

"There!!"


Here is the thing, I'm fairly sure that she won't always succeed. I didn't had the patience to test it, but I remember it that way. Also, later there will be magic traps that Hayami can't do anything about. But another character will be able to deal with them.

I just spam her X-ray eyes on the way...

The red marks are traps, and the blue mark is a chest. Since it's blue, I know that it isn't trapped. It holds 10 antidotes, just in the event that you're really terrible at games?


The path isn't very long, but this winding section is a bit devious. Some of the traps are hidden out of sight. There is a walk-able line of one tile size under the forest edge, and you can't see the markers there.

There are also new enemies in here.

These are just melee guys without any special skill. There is another type of enemy in here, but I didn't encounter it this time.

Eventually, I come to the end of the path.

Random save points are the RPG way of saying "Danger ahead".

Also, the blue mark is a hidden item.

This goes on Ryle.


At the end of this fork are also some hidden Full Potions. But I accidentally picked them up before using X-ray vision.

Well, let's follow the path out of the forest..


"Huh!? An AMBUSH!?"

Who could've guessed!?



"This is!!"

"I am the one that desires blood. You are just perfect! I'll enjoy you a lot~"

"Tsk! A tough enemy!!"


Yoshi! (Alright!) _{oh god it's infecting my brain}

Make no mistake. Even if Hayami just pointed out what attacks you should use, this is a pretty tough fight! The Ramia is quite beefy, has a melee attack that sometimes hits twice, can reduce your offense and has a darkness wave that hits everybody. She can fuck you over really quick if you're not careful, especially since Hayami has neither high Hp nor defense. Also she has a second phase.

Well, the first part of the fight is pretty much just spamming my strongest moves and healing constantly.

Things could look better.

Then the Ramia ups the ante...
"Not bad! This is getting interesting...Killing you with full power would be more fun!!"

Ramia called upon its shadows!!


She straight up summons two clones. Thanks!

And those aren't images. They are real clones, with the same attacks and at full health. You're pretty much fucked if all three decide to spam the darkness wave at once. And even if they stick to debuffing you or using the melee attack, the frequency of damage is really high at this point.


Yeah, I honestly struggle to survive.

The only real way to deal with this, is to have Ryle feed Hayami with Jello so that she can spam her skills. And to have him toss out potions in between. Hayami really needs to keep spamming or you're screwed.


Eventually...

I win!


And get thrown back into the world, without any reactions whatsoever. Cool!

Well, the capital is ahead of us.

But I think we deal with that next time.