Part 42: The Anime Intensifies

The Anime Intensifies

After freeing Factoria from the Mahzoks, we get dumped back into our room at the Inn. You'd think that we get a bit more feedback after saving everyone, but there actually isn't a whole lot to discover.


The folks around don't really realize what went down.


Even if some got the short end of the stick


And Ryle's family doesn't have more than two sentences for him, so it's easy to just gtfo and go straight to the Abyss. But there are actually a few important things that you can easily miss here.


Gohu still guards the throne room. And while he feels bad for getting mind-controlled, he has something neat for Hayami.



"It's...for sessha!?"

"The whole world's fate lies in your hands. This is the least we could do, Gomen! (sorry)"

"...Thank you. Sessha accept it with great honor."


Ah, there is that final upgrade for Hayami I was wondering about!






A nice thing about Hayami's new sword is that it's one-handed, so you can pair it with another good sword for maximum attack power.


Her new move is also pretty good!

Aside from that, the shop in town also has new gear.

That's real easy to miss, because I'm pretty sure no shop ever changed its offer so far.


Yeah, you can buy ALLCorsets here. That's kinda busted and defeats the purpose of the earlier secret!

I didn't buy any though, because it would trivialize the game even more. And I'm going to do that with other things anyway. Aside from rounding out everyone's armor, I pick up the Katana and it pushes Hayami's attack to 300. Which actually sets her ahead of the party for a change.

Well, since we're done here, let's head over to the Abyss.



There are a couple of gaps in the way, and Latyss uses her magic to get us past them. We saw that enough times by now, so let's instead check out the enemies here.


Just a recolor.


We already saw two of those guys during the last part, but the Abyss Bird is new. Dunno if it has any skills, as it didn't survive long enough.


A chest on the way hides a new gun module for Mariel.



"It's VERY heavy with bomb shells~ But the firepower is the best!"

Sounds cool, let's give it a spin.


Nice! Yeah, it was a crit, but it's still powerful enough on normal hits.

Also, it actually gives her a new skill.



Shaky is a somewhat useful effect, since it makes enemies lose their next turn.

Anyway, Latyss helps us cross more gaps...



...and then we go through a series of pointless teleporters.


On the way, we end up in another sci-fi room. The water is actually a healing spring, but our eyes should get drawn to the chest.




Yep, this is just coincidentally lying around on the way. And it's actually going to become kind of a trend, because Flare probably forgot to properly space out the endgame weapons, and now they'll just get dropped into our lap in rapid succession

After a few more teleporters...

...things start to look a little weird. The ground here actually has a neat effect. There is a static image moving around, which gives the impression that the ground is glowing with arcane Anime power. There are four teleporters here, but only one makes you progress, while the others send you back to the middle.


This is a puzzle room. And while it looks intimidating at first, it's pretty simple.


The game tells you that you have to place the four horses on the glowing spots. You move them with the buttons, but since both rows will always get moved, you need to use the four pillars in the middle to block the statues that you want to stay put. Just push one of the pillars next to each horse, and then figure it out from there.


It's really not hard at all.


After that we get back to the glowy floor, and now we're going to face a puzzle that's actually not a piece of cake and needs a bit of brain-power.


The console gives you this hint, and that's all you'll get. It should be pretty obvious that you need to use your friends in the following puzzle, but there is more to it than that. This puzzle presents you with several choices where you can pick from multiple members of your group, and you will not know if you made the right choice, because you can progress either way. Except that you can't solve the last step if you made a wrong choice on the way, and won't really know why. It took me a few tries to figure this out, but you need to come up with a solution that uses each of your members once. Every other configuration will not work. Once you realize that, it's just a bit of trial and error to see who is available for what choices.

The first obstacle is a column that blocks our way.

Hayami did some cutting for us before, so this one isn't too hard. I'm not going to show how the girls do it though, since we saw the basic animations a bunch of times by now.

Then we encounter a patch of darkness.

Both girls seem like a good choice here, but you want to pick Orubia.

After that, we find a pillar of ice.

This one can be tricky too, because Fina pipes up and says that she also knows fire stuff. You can maybe pick either her or Caris, as we'll see later, but I chose Caris.

The next obstacle is a pillar of fire.

Latyss already helped us in the castle, so this one is easy. There is also a bit of bickering with Hilde, because she really wants to do it instead of Latyss.


Whatever, just get on with it.


Remember what I said about the game just dumping all the good stuff on us?

"Something is wrong?"

"...The same eerie feeling when we picked up this bimbo~" *pointing at Hilde*

"Sylph~! How could you~"

"Another new elemental?"

"This time a hot-headed dude~"

"Yuck~ It's Flam~"

"Mm? Sylph and Hilde? What are YOU doing here?"

"So hot~"

"We're with Latyss now. By the way how did you got trapped into a magic wand?"


Sure you have, pal.

The elementals then proceed to bicker some more, until Flam joins us.


And we also get the staff.




If you don't know about a certain secret, then this will probably be Latyss' final weapon. It's a good one though, so don't break your head about it.


Flam also gives Latyss two new fire skills.




I can't see much difference between them though

Anyway, back to our puzzle.

There is a pit here, and a switch on the side. So we have Mariel shoot it with her god-like aim.

And the last obstacle is a large metal door.

Fina can just cut through it. And as I said before, you can maybe pick Caris if you let Fina do the fire thing earlier, but I didn't try.


If you did it right, Ryle can interact with the wall. If you didn't, he won't do anything and you have to figure out why.





"Well, let's go. The magic circle over there must be the entrance."

"Yeah let's go!"

Except...


"Ack!!"

"OUCH-!!"

"Kya!"


lmao

"What the hell is this!? There's some kind of wall in front of me!!"

"It hurts~ It just messed up my pretty face~"

"I hit my nose on this invisible wall~"

"Wall? Where!!? I don't see any!"

"What's going on?"

"And somehow I can't use my Warp in here! There's no way we can get in."

Yeah, do you remember how Flare kinda said that you need the Dragon Gene to enter this place? No? Well, if you'd paid attention, you wouldn't have bonked your heads into an invisible wall

Our heroes figure this out eventually, and decide to just guard the entrance while Fina does her thing.

Shut it. You're the hero now.


So, now Fina is on her own. But since there are no encounters in here, there's no real trouble. We have to go through another pointless teleporter chain though, so let's just skip that.


Can you see that little orange thing on her right? There are energy bolts going up and down here, and they all have different speeds.


You need to guide Fina past them, and getting hit actually hurts quite a bit. You have to do this twice, with more teleporting in between, and eventually you'll arrive in the heart of this place.





"Dragon!?"

"Fina Delstar?"

"(This dragon..gives me creeps..)"

"You seem cautious. But why? We are allies since way back in the Demonic War."

"..Why are you here?"

"We decided to fight against the Mahzoks. And I'm here to guard the Arms."

"....I see. So this is another way..."

"? What did you say?"







"Any dragon can enter this place. Including you..."

"DARK DRAGON!! Traitor of dragon clan, who sided with the Mahzoks!"



"...Perhaps I underestimated this kid too much. She seems to be more powerful than I expected."

"(Shoot! I should've expected the Mahzoks gaining access like this!)"

"Like you already have realized, I can kill you with ease. Curse the Arms which are protected by some kind of impenetrable barrier. I would have just finished you and your friends outside!"

"Even if I'm gone, my mom is still alive!"

"Keh Keh Keh! Of course I know that!! And I also know that Flare isn't capable of using Cosmos Eternal now."


That is the super move that Flare used to defeat CHAOS in his own dimension, jfyi.

"Otherwise she wouldn't send you over here to become the new Sacred Dragon!"

"(But no Mahzok I know is powerful enough to need the use of Cosmos Eternal!! Unless it's...)"


Nope, still not telling

"You'll DIE here before that happens!"

"I don't think so! Rune Disaster!"

"So that's the missing part of the Draconic Buster!"

"(Couple of Divine Impacts should do it!)"

"Garrrrr!!"




"Waa~ (He's trying to stop me before I can use it!)"

"Just like the previous battle with Raymah, I can see your typical pattern here. Try to get me by surprise huh?"

"(This is BAD! If he keeps using flame breath on me, I won't be able to charge the move!)"

Kudos to the Dark Dragon for breaking the cycle of Anime. When I was young and watched DBZ, I always wondered why they let their opponents power up all calm, instead of just punching them into the face immediately? Oh wow, while I'm writing this, old DBZ is actually on the Tv. Goku is still a kid and Krillin just died because Picolo is still a grumpy old evil guy. Damn, it's been years since I saw this stuff, maybe I should...


Whoops, time to pay attention again

"Huh?"





"You are Fina Delstar right? Thank you for saving 2 young clansmen of ours."

"2 young clansmen? Who are they? And what about you...?"

"Only the dragons or the ones with the Dragon Gene are allowed to enter the temple. Haven't you figured it out yet little one?"

"That means you are a dragon!? And the people you mentioned were those green dragons at elven mine!"

"They weren't dead back then, thanks to the cunning act by that young man named Ryle."

"OMG! You mean they're alive!?"

"Also we were able to find our little ones taken as hostages."

Okay, wait a minute, full fucking stop. WTF? This is the most ham-fisted retcon I've ever seen! If you don't recall this, look at the end of update 18. Ryle had to kill the Green Dragons, so that their kidnapped children would not get murdered for their failure. He made a huge fucking deal about the emotional trauma that this caused him, and we clearly saw how he cut them! But whoops, he apparently came up with a super sneaky plan on the spot and everything's fine. Deal with it!



"Yes. I would like to witness the birth of the savior for a new era!"

"In spite of MY presence!?"

"Of course. Not that it's an easy task. Because your power is a force to be reckoned with. Fina, I'll buy you some time! Release all of your power through the Dragon Gene! Once the Dragon Arms have reacted to your will, you shall become the Sacred Dragon!!"

"B-But you make it sound so easy~"

"Remind yourself WHY you have come so far! And don't be afraid. Trust your heart~"

"O-Ok! I'll do it..!"

"Trying to stop ME!?"

"By all means necessary."

"I won't allow that to happen! DIE DRAGON LORD-!!"



"Fina, don't think about other things! Just concentrate on the Arms!!"

"Are you gonna be alright gramps!? He's VERY tough you know!"

"Stop worrying about me! The world is depending on you!!"

"Nonsense, that won't happen as long as I'm here!"


And here our new friend tells us what this battle is about. Fina can't do anything because she's charging up, and the Dragon Lord needs to keep her alive. It's still one of those cutscene fights, except that there is a very real possibility of dying because the Dark Dragon doesn't fuck around. This is also the part of the game where it stops being nice, and suddenly decides that bosses should be kinda hard. If you haven't trained Fina before this point, she'll probably get nuked instantly.


The Lord has a bunch of cool spells at his disposal, but you probably won't have a chance to use them because you need him to cast constant healing.


I still managed to grab his default animation though.

So, as in the other cutscene fights before, there are a bunch of lines that get triggered eventually. Fina doesn't really know what to do, and is also overwhelmed by the fighting, so she can't connect with the Arms.


"But why!? Why aren't the Dragon Arms reacting?"

"...."

"Too late now! You're all OVER!!"

"Dragon Arms-! Please answer my calling! He'll get gramps if it's too late!"

"Give up!! You don't have the potential!"

"Yes I do!!"

"It doesn't matter, I'll make you give up!!"


Fina is right. The first phase of the fight is just about survival. And again, it really isn't that easy because the Dark Dragon has several hefty flame attacks.

"Like I said before! You're just a kid with the Dragon Gene, nothing more!"

"Damn..."

"...Fina. The Arms will refuse to respond as long as you only seek their power."

This will lead to one of the funniest dumb things in the game, just wait.

"!!"

"The Arms have their own will like us, and you were treating them as mere tools!"

"Lecturing at a time like this!? Too late for that!"

"Don't forget! Your will must reach their hearts!!"


lmfao

"You guys...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. But please help me and my friends! I need you in order to protect everyone-!!"


Yeah, the Arms start to glow in their chests after Fina apologized for hurting their feelings. Seriously, lol

"Nice try! Now DIE!!"

"HELLSFIRE-!!"


The Lord buys Fina more time for chumming up to the Arms.

"Ack! You foolish OLD MAN~"

"Shut up and watch this!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!!"


Glowing orbs come out of the chests...


...and converge on Fina.









It's...it's..so..sugoi

_{I also like how one of her eyes clips through her hair}


Of course, she also gets a new Face-set.

"Finally things are going well."

"Arrrrrrg! DAMN YOU!!"

"Get down gramps! I'll take care of him from now on!"

"Please be easy on him. I don't want to see you becoming the next god of destruction!"

"I will! The Arms can control their own power."

"Let's see how much power you can handle! I can still kill you since you don't have full control of your power yet!!"

"...Better watch out for the power which even destroyed CHAOS."

"To hell with you! DIE-!!"


And we're back in the fight!

"I'll make sure to finish you off before you can fully use your power!!"

"It may sound like bluffing, but I won't lose to you!"

"Even after you've become the Sacred Dragon, you are still an amateur Valkyrie!"

"...Fine then! You'll soon find out the painful truth!"

God damn, they should have called him smack-talk dragon. Well, as he's finally done, let's take a look at Fina's new skills.

Huh. Turns out that they actually didn't really change. The only skill that got improved is her Divine Impact. And she herself also hasn't gotten any stronger. This can kinda throw you off, because the dragon can still wreck her in two or three hits. But don't worry! You only have to hold on for a little while longer...

"As I expected, you are unable to pull out much of your power!"

"...."

"Keh Keh Keh Keh~ Read your mind?"

"*grin*"

"!?"

"Haven't I told you to watch out for my power?"

"So what!"


And there is is! The line we have all been waiting for. Maximum achieved.

"WHAT!? Impossible!"

"That means I can use a particular spell you might know already...You see I got the Draconic Buster and Rune Disaster in my hands."

"Rune Disaster-! Draconic Buster-! Unite at once!"

"!! The swords!"

"This is the true form of the Draconic Buster~!!"




And there is that new skill. It's very similar to what her mother can do, and will see a whole lot of use in the near future.

"Arrrrrk!!"

"I don't got a lot of time! I'll finish you with the next one!!"

"H-How dare you...!!"

Fina is lying, and the next one won't actually finish him.

Oh, she also has full regen for this fight, so it's just a matter of spamming her new move until it's over.

"Can't believe she's only using 10% of her max power~"

"And it's the reality. No way you can win this time."

"Damn it!"

"I'm not fighting alone. The Arms and I, we are one team!"

"I must kill you no matter what!!"


Nope, get out! The Thermal Suit is a new armor for Mariel, btw.



"How could this happen...I, Dark Dragon, have been toyed by a little girl..."



"Whew~"

"Your name is Dragon Lord right? Think I heard that name from my mom when she was young..."

"I am the 2nd Dragon Lord. It was the previous Lord who helped Flare and later passed away."

"I see..."

"Hm Hm! Never thought I would meet someone like you again in this realm."

"What...do you mean?"

"I admire your kindness from heart. Not many can do that anymore."

"Gramps..."

"Now get going! You should know the real purpose of the Mahzoks by now!!"


There have been a few strong hints in the last part of the game, but it still will not be said right away. And even if you already can guess it, there is still a layer to it that you honestly can't know about. But don't worry! The next update will have the big reveal, and I'm going to write some words about it. You can count on that one

"Farewell my child! Don't worry, we will fight against the Mahzoks ourselves."

"I wish we could fight together!"

"Not quite yet. You see there are many who don't want to get along with humans."

"That's so sad..."

"But your awakening shall bring new hope."

"You mean I'll motivate others to join the cause!?"

"Correct. You'll become a symbolic figure for the public to rise."

"Maybe I was better off not becoming the Sacred Dragon~"

"That's the destiny you chose to lead."

"I know. No more sorrow in people's hearts!!"

"Good luck on your journey!!"


To and beyond!